Virginity Testing in South Africa

120,000 South Africans are estimated to die this year of AIDS-related illnesses and more than 100,000 AIDS orphans are there. This has made community leaders extremely interested in reviving the old cultural tradition of virginity testing as a way to safeguard against AIDS. They believe that by testing for virginity, they are protecting themselves by telling people to abstain from sex. These exams have become extremely popular and hundreds of girls wait in line for up to three hours to be tested. Government officials in Zulu estimate that tens of thousands are being examined each month. Many Western critics claim that this method is just "putting raging teen hormones in temporary check by creating a culture of fear." These critics believe that both boys and girls need to be educated about sex, condoms, AIDS, and STD's instead. Leaders, however, refuse to educate about condoms because they believe that this will spark curiosity and that the boys and girls will try it. There are increasing reports of parents beating their children for failure to pass virginity examinations. The Ministry of Health has many concerns about the testing, but will not do anything because of the sheer size of the AIDS epidemic and does not want to curb efforts to halt the spread of the disease (Singer, http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/06/02/pls4.html).
In South Africa, particularly in Zulu, infants as young as 4 months are being tested to protect them against child abuse. Even women as old as 50 undergo these examinations to show that they are becoming socially prestigious. One girl says, "This is not the time to be sleeping with boys. We have isolated ourselves from those girls who sleep with boys. They are not our friends." This is the type of attitude that is prominent within these communities. Newly branded virgins often wear colorful dots on their foreheads to show their purity to the world. This is not always a good idea, however. Because of the existing myth that having sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure you of AIDS, many women are being raped after undergoing examinations that show that they are a virgin (Murphy, http://www.aegis.com/news/lt/1999/LT990702.html).
At one particular school in Zulu, about half of the 1,500 students have undergone a virginity test. Fewer than 30 have failed. At times, the testing can be cause for major celebration of Zulu culture, where they slaughter cows and have large celebrations. The boys are also often tested. The penises are checked. A hard foreskin is a sign of purity. A wire is placed between two trees about three feet off of the ground. The boys are instructed to urinate about the wire, without using their hands. If they urinate in a straight line, they are virgins. If it is a shower, they are impure. They are also told to urinate in the sand. The urine of a virgin makes a straight hole, they claim. South Africa's Commission on Gender Equality held a special meeting on virginity testing and determined that it is a bad thing on the whole, but recognizes that individuals have the right to practice their cultural traditions. One of the problems is that there are no babysitters in South Africa. Parents return from work in the evening and do not know what their children have been up to during the day. Many parents believe that these tests will be a cure for AIDS because virgins will congregate with virgins and the impure will be shunned. Tests are also performed in five other schools in Zulu on children as young as six so that they can "get used to it." Sex education does not sound like it is plausible in the near future. A local schoolteacher says, "We are against the use of condoms. We think condoms promote lust for sex. If a person has condoms he can go to another man's wife knowing he will not get her pregnant. I don't think we should teach children about such things""(McGreal, http://www.mg.co.za/mg/news/99sep2/29sep-aids_virgin.html).
There are many questions that are raised about the inspections such as:
how much anatomical knowledge do those doing the testing have?
how do they know that a broken hymen is not the result of sport or even child abuse?
how hygienic are the inspections?
If the first girl inspected has HIV, and the same pair of gloves are used on the rest of the girls in the row, they can all become infected with the virus (Strachan, http://www.hst.org/za/update/44/policy4.html).
Resources
http://www.saartjie.co.za/feb2000/hymen23.html
http://lynx.dac.neu.edu/k/kakelly/virgins/virgins.html
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/women/2000/apeal_turkey.html
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/001214/80/as7x9.html
http://hr-action.org/thr/Apress-vt.html
http://generation-y.com/stories/011698/turkish.html
http://www.ama-assn.org/special/womh/library/readroom/vol_282a/jlf90016.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/06/02/pls4.html
http://www.aegis.com/news/lt/1999/LT990702.html
http://www.mg.co.za/mg/news/99sep2/29sep-aids_virgin.html
http://www.hst.org/za/update/44/policy4.html