The UK government has been urged by human rights campaigners to make aid and increased trade with Indonesia conditional on an end to degrading “virginity tests”.

For decades, women applying to Indonesia’s military have been subjected to the invasive practice in the belief that it will establish whether they are sexually active – and therefore if they are “moral” and “worthy of office”.

The “two finger test”, in which medics check whether a woman’s hymen is still intact, has no basis in science and is used as a humiliating threat to keep women from progressing in the country's security apparatus.

The issue is being raised as the UK Department for International Development (Dfid) and the Department of Trade move to expand relations with the fast growing south east Asian state.

Dr Meghan Campbell, deputy director of the Oxford Human Rights Hub and law lecturer at Birmingham University, told The Telegraph that the UK should “strenuously advocate” for an end to the practice.

“Virginity testing is a gross violation of a woman’s right to equality,” she said. “It reinforces stereotypes that a woman’s moral worth is exclusively connected to sexual activity… and excludes them from positions of power.

“As the UK seeks to position itself as a global leader it should protect the human rights of women all over the world,” Dr Campbell added.