Nursing students have to be virgins???

Nurses General Nursing

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OMG!!!! Found this on Fox News website. Cannot believe it. Unreal....read on:

ISTANBUL, Turkey-Turkey's health minister says high school girls training to be nurses must be virgins and the virginity tests he is authorizing will protect the nation's youth from prostitution and underage sex.

Outraged women's groups and nurses are vowing to fight, and a teachers' union is asking the government to fire the minister.

The regulations introduced this week by Health Minister Osman Durmus allow principals in state schools that train nurses, midwives and other health workers to expel girls for "having had sex or engaging in prostitution." Girls who are suspected of having sex could be subjected to a gynecological test to determine if they are virgins.

Virginity is highly valued in mainly Muslim Turkey. Forced virginity tests on girls suspected of having had premarital sex were common until the practice was banned in 1999 after five girls took rat poison rather than submit to the test.

Durmus said he was trying promote moral behavior in the nursing schools.

"Should our schools become places for prostitution?" he was quoted as saying by Akit newspaper.

In a tense meeting Tuesday, Buyan Dogan, the head of the Association of Turkish nurses, pleaded with Durmus to reconsider. The minister interrupted her frequently, at times accusing the nurses of defending underage sex.

"We will fight this to the end," an angry Dogan said before leaving Durmus' office.

The controversy, which is also being debated in the country's newspapers, reflects deep divisions between the large part of Turkey that is deeply religious and the Western-oriented elite who regard themselves as European.

The Islamic-oriented newspaper Akit devoted its front page to Durmus' attacks on the nurses who oppose virginity tests.

"A lesson for the immoral evil person," the newspaper said in its headline, referring to Dogan. It accused her of defending prostitution and sexual relationships.

The liberal press, meanwhile, ridiculed Durmus in sarcastic headlines. Columnist Can Dundar of the Milliyet newspaper asked how Durmus was going to check the virginity of male nursing students.

The Turkish Union of Science and Culture Workers, which represents teachers, called for the minister's dismissal.

"Durmus should work to solve the country's health problems-he should not concern himself with issues concerning the waist down," said Alaadin Dincer, head of the union.

In Turkey, girls who attend nursing high schools are generally from poor, traditional backgrounds. The conservative countryside is a traditional power base for Durmus' far-right Nationalist Action Party.

The 1999 ban on virginity tests allows them only for gathering evidence for court cases, such as rape trials. It requires a court order before women can be forced to take the test.

Durmus said nursing students suspecting of having sex would not be subjected to virginity tests without a court order.

Before the ban, school principals could force the test on girls suspected of engaging in premarital sex.

The change came after five teen-age girls from an orphanage attempted suicide by taking rat poison and throwing themselves in a water tank rather than submitting to the test after returning late to their orphanage. The girls were later forced to take the test in their hospital beds.

Concern over virginity sometimes even extends to visitors to Turkey: In more conservative parts of the country, unmarried foreign tourists have been dragged out of their hotel rooms for staying with male companions.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,29924,00.html

You gotta be kidding me...

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Sorry but I had to chuckle as I read this. Maybe this explains the nursing shortage!!! :D

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You gotta be kidding me! And that raises a good question... how do they check the males? Glad Im not going to be transfering to Turkey!

Brandy

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Brandy, It is a known fact that males, Never engage in premarital sex, UNLESS PROVOKED (LOL).

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Specializes in Home Health.

I saw that in the paper today also. That is abominable! Hand me the rat poison, I choose my own fate.

And what will they do besides deny them admission to nursing school if found to not be virgins?? Beat them??

I will keep all Turkish women in my prayers.

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What a horrible society to live in. I'm not political (ususally) but between this and Turkey destroying all of those 2000 year old (or more) statues and carvings makes me think that I ought to get involved. I will also be keeping these women in my prayers.

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Sadly, this doens't even surprise me. I'm not a poltical activist either, but the things that go on in some of these predominantly Muslim countries just sickens me. For instance, anyone hear about the atrociites against women in Afghanistan? Women aren't allowed to work or go to school. They aren't allowed to leave their homes without a male companion. Public beatings and amputations are quite normal, just sickens me. You can check all this out for yourself - http://www.rawa.org - I also read that while these virginity tests aren't "legal" anymore, that the girl's feel such pressure from their communities, they regularly submit to "voluntary" virginity screenings, where they lie down spread eagle in a field and someone goes along and checks for intact hymens. As each hymen is found intact, the girls and an audience all jump and cheer. How sick is that? Anyway, sorry to get off on this tirade...

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Specializes in Mental health, organization and leadership.
Originally posted by nbicurn

What a horrible society to live in. I'm not political (ususally) but between this and Turkey destroying all of those 2000 year old (or more) statues and carvings makes me think that I ought to get involved. I will also be keeping these women in my prayers.

PLEASE! I can see you are not political, you got something terribly wrong here... It`s NOT Turkey destroying 2000 year old carvings/statues, it`s AFGHANISTAN which is a country ruled by high traditional talibans. Afghanistan has become a dictature where women live in fear to be stoned to death if they are showing anything but the eyes outside their own house. To compare Turkey to Afghanistan is like comparing... hmmm... I can`t come up with anything like it!!!

Beside this- I can`t believe this... It sounds really sick- an expression of a fight within the turkish society you can`t imagine if you have not been in the country. Turkey is a country with a white and a black side. One side (mainly upper class) are living exactly as we are in Rome, NY, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Paris etc. The other side of the country is, as mentioned before in this thread, traditional low-educated muslems who are living in a very traditional way. Turkey is truly an interesting country, I recommend you all to visit it at least one time. If anyone have questions about the country or society, you are welcome to e-mail me!

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I work with a nurse who is in her 40s and who is from India. She has been in the US for 6 years now. She graduated from nursing school in India when she was 18, started school when she was 16. The school would not let women/girls in if they were not virgins and unmarried. They also HAD to live in a dorm-type community and be in by 6pm during the week and 9pm on weekend, also had to have written proof that they were going to see family on weekends.:confused:

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I also read this today and was horrified. I wonder what happens to these students if their hymen is not intact due to sports, etc.? Are they saying that if you aren't a virgin you will make a poor nurse? LOL!

I don't understand what the prime minister means when he stated, it will protect the nation's youth from prostitution and underage sex?

Lynda

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When I hear of things like this in regards to nursing students, I can't help but remember the history of nursing and how far we have come here in the U.S., but how much more needs to be done in other parts of the world.

I believe in the "collective consciousness," where something that happens to nurses in one part of the world effects us all.

"No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this -- 'devoted and obedient.' This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse. " ... Florence Nightingale 1859

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I can't believe this article. I am really gald to be living in the USA. I had better count my blessing that I got into a nursing program. I should also stop complaining about the hoops I had jump through to get into the nursing program. My heart goes out to those women who are living in fear, and not able to lead their live the way they choose to.

Thanks :cool: :p

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