Aspiring women civil servants in China protest over invasive health test

A GROUP of aspiring women civil servants in China recently staged a protest in the city of Wuhan holding banners saying: “What does your menstrual history have to do with becoming a civil servant?” Future civil servants were protesting against the detailed medical examination on a range of health issues including the state of a woman’s uterus, cervix and vagina,...
according to a report published in International Herald Tribune, the global edition of NYT.
In a country that has no provisions like RTI, one of the aspiring woman civil servants has reportedly shot a letter to a government agency, asking information about the exact number of female candidates being rejected after the gynecological test. She also wanted to know from the government what precisely was the purpose of the test, according to the same report quoting the woman with her name changed. The gynecological examination report even runs into over 100 pages that includes queries like when they first began menstruating, how long they menstruate for, how much blood is lost and whether it is painful, according to the report.
The protestors say they don’t mind undergoing a normal gynecological examination, but the way it’s conducted is a violation of women’s rights in China. The doctors even examine the state of one’s womb, and for the unmarried women, they go through the anus to check the womb, “to avoid going through the vagina”, the report said. But protestors said it’s both a humiliation and violation of basic rights. They said, “What does the state of your womb have to do with getting a civil service job?”
More and more people in China including academics have asked whether those queries have anything to do with their future work. Protestors say it’s unfair, invasive and almost equivalent to sexual violence.