A Somali woman who accused government security forces of rape was sentenced to one year in prison on Tuesday after the court ruled that her accusation was false. A journalist who had interviewed the woman but never published a story was also sentenced to one year in prison.
The Somali court ruled that the woman had not been raped based on the testimony of a midwife who performed a “finger test.” According to the Human Rights Watch, the so-called “finger test” is “an unscientific and degrading practice that has long been discredited because it is not a credible test of whether a woman has been raped.”
As I’ve said before, that test has got to go. It’s rooted in ignorant beliefs about female anatomy held over from the days when a woman’s only worth came from her monetary value as a bona fide virgin on the marriage market.