A Romanian woman has won a case against her country which rejected her from attending military medical school for being too small.
Elena Moraru took her case to the European Court of Human Rights who ruled Romania discriminated against a potential military recruit by barring her from an entrance exam because she was too small, the court said Tuesday.
Rationale
Europe’s top right court agreed with Ms Moraru, now 23, that Bucharest had no scientific or research-based rationale for barring her from taking an entrance examination for military medical school.
In 2018, she bean the application process to two Romanian universities that offered a military medicine study program with the intention to become a military doctor.
As part of the application process, she underwent a physical examination at Piteşti Emergency Military Hospital in southern Romania.
Height
She was told that her height and weight – Moraru is 4 foot 10 inches (150 cm) tall and weighed 44 kg (97 pounds) – did not meet a threshold set by the defense ministry
Romanian authorities argued that military medical staff must be able to carry the standard pack for a soldier, which weighs around 57 kg or 125 pounds. In a review a month later, the military upheld the decision.
She appealed to a Romanian court, arguing the height and weight requirement is discriminatory.
Highest court
She cited a 2017 ruling from the European Union’s highest court which found that a height minimum set by the Greek police force was illegal because it discriminated against women and was not vital to the job.
Romania argued its height and weight standards are set differently for men and for women, taking into account the generally smaller size of women.
The court was especially critical of the act that Moraru was never asked to demonstrate if she could carry the required weight. The defense ministry’s standard does not appear to be based on “any studies, research or statistical data, or any type of empirical evidence,” the seven-judge panel wrote.
Damages
The court ordered the Romanian government to pay Moraru 7,500 euros in damages.
In 2020, Romania removed the size requirement for military recruits.
