Abstract
Through a February 1979 report in The Guardian, it became public knowledge that a number of women had been given gynaecological examinations by immigration control staff in the UK and at British High Commissions in South Asia, in a practice colloquially known as virginity testing. This chapter examines the culture of racism and sexism within the British immigration control system that allowed these ‘virginity tests’ to occur, and why South Asian women attempting to enter the country on temporary fiancée visas were subjected to these tests from the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. This abusive practice must be seen in the context of the overall highly discriminatory treatment of migrant women coming from the Indian subcontinent evident from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.
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Notes
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© 2014 Evan Smith and Marinella Marmo
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Smith, E., Marmo, M. (2014). Reorienting the South Asian Female Body: The Practice of Virginity Testing and the Treatment of Migrant Women. In: Race, Gender and the Body in British Immigration Control. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137280442_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137280442_4
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