SA leader urges virginity tests

[emad]

BBC News snip:

South African's deputy president has encouraged young girls to take virginity tests to curb the spread of HIV/Aids and teenage pregnancy.
Jacob Zuma said it was an African custom for a woman to value her virginity. Early pregnancy leads to children being abandoned, he said.

But human rights groups say the practice of virginity testing is a human rights violation.

More than five million South Africans are HIV positive - one in nine people.


Virginity testing is practised in KwaZulu Natal and neighbouring Swaziland, where girls lie down on mats for a woman to check to see if their hymens are intact.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3683210.stm

[rocktivity]

1. Don't they know that hymens can be broken from strenuous excercise?

And what's the point of expecting girls to "value" their virginity if boys aren't expected to value theirs?

:headbang:
rocknation

[Red State Rebel]

14. I saw on Discovery Health you can also have them surgically restored..

no thanks!

[jukes]

2. sick, repressive

chauvinism. we're *STILL* in the dark ages. i'm enraged when woman are treated as cattle.

[Eye and Monkey]

13. Ashcroft reads article, thinks "What a GOOD idea...!"

Ashcroft picks up phone, calls Ralph Reed. Wheels start turning.

[liontamer]

3. what makes this even worse

Is that some people believe sex with a virgin cures aids, making the girls who "pass" targets for rape

[BiggJawn]

4. Any more barbaric than OUR "test"?

Here in the US, the authorities, under presure from RW religious Fundy whack-jobs, withold birth control and information from young women in order to insure that swelling bellies PROVE that you've been doing the dirty deed with somebody...

[noonwitch]

5. It would probably be better to offer HIV testing to at-risk populations

It is right to encourage girls to remain virgins until they are adults, and to encourage them to practice safe sex when they are sexually active. I don't see how checking their hymens helps prevent the spread of AIDS, unless girls who don't have them are going to face punishment or something. And that would be so bad.

[onenote]

6. isn't this part of Alan Keyes platform?

kidding, but barely...

onenote

[jwirr]

7. So what they are saying

is that some poor little virgin is going to lay down with some guy who has not been tested for his virginity and this is supposed to stop aids? While she is at home saving her virginity for him - he is out screwing around and getting aids. Makes sense to me - hasn't the woman always been to blame? Now it is her fault that aids is spreading. Good God, how dumb are these people?

[emad]

9. About as dumb as their chums in Turkey who were proposing to

make adultery a criminal offense.

South Africa's current insanity looks like Sharia law by stealth....

[struggle4progress]

10. Turkey periodically becomes enthusuiastic over "virginity tests" too. eom

[Coventina]

8. "Virginity" is a MYTH perpetuated by the patriarchy!!!!

Argh! I am so infuriated when I hear this kind of crap.

The hymen is NO VALID MEASUREMENT of sexual activity or lack thereof!!!
Any doctor can tell you that!

This is one issue that I wish the feminist movement would tackle head on and publicly.

[PassingFair]

11. Tackle virginity "head" on?

Is that a pun?

[emad]

15. Thank you Coventina. If there was such a thing as a penis

hymen then maybe there could be a valid argument about human pre-sexuality. But there ain't and I agree with your point 100%.

[SoCalDem]

12. and if they're NOT?? What then??

Are they banished??

As long as women and girls are treated like property, the men and boys in their own families and villages will prey on them.. I doubt that there is much virginity going on there past the age of 10 or so..and I doubt that the girls were eager to "give it up"..:(