Virginity Testing
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In South Africa young women are tested to prove that they are still virgins. One can only imagine the status of the girls who don’t take or are unable to pass the virginity test. The South African government may ban virginity tests. Traditionalists are outraged.
I’m surprised that American ‘family values’ groups haven’t tried to import this custom. Though they probably wouldn’t have them appear before President Bush with naked breasts.
Two weeks ago, she joined thousands of other bare-breasted maidens resplendent in colourful loincloths to declare their virginity before Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini.
“I’m here to show my pride at being a virgin and to show the world that I can live without doing what my peers are doing,” says Nozipho. …
“I even walk tall in my community in the knowledge that they are proud of my status,” she says.
Mhlongo’s sentimental attachment to virginity testing and the public profile it offers is a tale of many other girls in the rural villages of KwaZulu-Natal. …
Virginity testing - ukuhlolwa kwezintombi - is an ancient Zulu tradition that is regarded as an important rite of passage to womanhood.
Tradition And Modernity Collide in Virgin Debate
