Virginity tests to fight Aids?
2002-08-14 13:15
Malelane - There's a growing call for the revival of the age-old custom of virginity testing to help fight the onslaught of HIV/Aids.
As Maria Mbatha, a nurse at KaMhlushwa clinic south of Malelane in Mpumalanga, says: "We need to encourage young girls to abstain from sex".
Mbatha or other nurses from the clinic are always on hand at virginity tests conducted in Langeloop village, to ensure that conditions are hygienic. Elderly women conduct the tests.
"From a health point of view, there is no harm from the grannies," says
Mbatha.
She says the number of young girls who die from HIV/Aids-related illness
has increased in the area.
"We feel the pain at the hospitals, this is the least communities can do to prevent HIV/Aids," she adds.
Community leader and principal of Luvolwetfu Primary Johannes
Sibanyoni agrees with Mbatha.
He believes parents are running away from their responsibility by ignoring their children's morality.
Part of moral syllabus
"We cannot differentiate between children and adults anymore," says Sibanyoni. "We, as parents, are confused, we need to revive our culture to help our
children have respect and discipline."
Sibanyoni wants the government to include virginity testing as part of the moral syllabus at schools.
"Our culture can be taught in the same way that we teach about Aids at schools," he says.
But, not everyone agrees with the practice.
Provincial deputy-director of sports, recreation, arts and culture Gloria
Fakude has publicly criticised virginity testing as a violation of women's
rights.
"Their private parts should not be inspected and definitely not publicly,"
she says.
Taking the middle road is Professor Suzanne Leclerc-Madlala from the University of Natal in Durban.
Leclerc-Madlala points out that while the practice is valuable to teach sex education and detect sexual abuse among young girls, the government should
enforce standard procedures for virginity testing.
"Tests shouldn't be held at public places like stadiums, show grounds and community centres," she says. "It's invasive and humiliating for the girls."
Leclerc-Madlala believes that virginity testing should be a component of a larger sexual education curriculum.
But for girls like Busi Sibiya, 21, virginity isn't a matter of contention, but a matter of pride.
She and her peers break into peals of laughter and song as their elated elders emerge from the "testing" hut at Langeloop and begin handing out certificates.
Sibiya and her peers are in high spirits because all 25 have just passed a test to confirm their virginity.
Sibiya has been going for regular virginity tests since the age of five and says she wants to be like her sister who remained a virgin until she got
married at 25.
"I want to get married to a man who has maintained himself like me," says the beaming Sibiya.
To pass the test the bare-breasted girls, dressed in skimpy indlamu (traditional loincloths), have to present their breasts, buttocks and thighs to female elders for inspection.
Monica Zwane has conducted the tests for more than 20 years and says you can tell if a girl's still a virgin by the appearance of her belly-button, eye-sockets and the back of her thighs.
Signs of maturity
"When a girl loses her virginity her breasts become supple, her eye-sockets becomes bigger and menstruation veins become visible on her thighs and belly-button," she says.
The elders also inspect the girls' vaginas to determine if their hymens are still intact.
Dr Solomon Mahlangu from Garankuwa Hospital disputes that you can determine a woman's sexual status by external physical attributes like supple breasts and says these are merely signs of maturity.
"It is a physical phenomenon, the body will develop certain hormones for sexual maturity as it prepares itself for menstruation and sex," he said.
He would like to see virginity testing conducted by medical practitioners, and then only to determine if a girl or woman has been sexually abused. - African Eye News Service