Tags
abstinence, gender inequality, hiv education, hiv prevention, king goodwill zwelithini, reed dance, the new age, virginity testingZulu Reed dance: virginity testing, purity (and prevention?)
Kim Johnson
12 September 2011
While the Swazis are 'defending' their Reed dance virgins against “unscrupulous” men who aim to court and compromise them, the Zulu Reed dance is in a different, but related, pickle.
In a The New Age (TNA) article covering the weekend’s Zulu Reed dance, King Goodwill Zwelithini is quoted saying that many of the maidens in attendance were not virgins but had paid to secure fake certificates which said otherwise.
Some might scoff at the fact that the ever controversial virginity testing seems to be becoming a bit of a farce. But the heart of the matter is that virginity test or not, young women are having sex and possibly exposing themselves to HIV because abstinence is the lone arrow in their HIV prevention arsenal.
Previous reports on virginity testing in South Africa have often claimed that condoms are rarely mentioned at virginity testing events and if they are it is to warn young women away from them.
Aside from and added to this, is the valid argument put forward by virginity testing critics. In the eyes of opponents, virginity testing is sexist and liable to expose women to HIV, rather than protect them from it.
One astute researcher said that this was because virginity testing placed all of the sexual responsibility on girls and women, ignoring the role men played in the spread of HIV.
Virginity testing and abstinence-only teaching which only focuses on women invites the kind of scenarios where even if women do stay ‘pure,’ men engage in risky sexual practices because this kind of HIV prevention does not seem to apply to them.
The gender inequality inherent in virginity testing and the abstinence only teaching which often accompanies could create a breeding ground for HIV in the KwaZulu-Natal province which is already bearing the brunt of the virus.
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