The Hindu : International : Swazi girls feel vulnerable to AIDS

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 26, 2005

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Swazi girls feel vulnerable to AIDS

— PHOTO: AP

Princess Sikhanyiso, daughter of King Mswati III, takes part in celebrations to mark the end of the rite banning sex for girls below 18.

MBABANE (SWAZILAND): Some 20,000 girls have celebrated the burning of their chastity tassels, some welcoming the end of a rite scorned as archaic and ineffective, but others saying they felt vulnerable without the badges donned in hopes of stopping AIDS in Swaziland.

King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch, announced last week that he was abandoning the umchwasho rite banning sexual relations for girls younger than 18. The bonfire, held at a secret location, marked the official end.

King Mswati reinstated the ancient rite for five years in 2001, but his idea was ridiculed as old-fashioned and unfairly focused on girls. With criticism mounting, he ended the ban a year early.

During the ban, Swazi girls were instructed to wear tasseled scarfs as a badge of virginity. If such a girl was approached for sex by a man, she was expected to throw her tassels at his homestead, obliging his family to forfeit a cow.

Experts said the ritual did little to slow AIDS in Swaziland, where 42.6 per cent of pregnant women and up to 40 per cent of adults are infected with the virus — the highest rate in the world.

But there were hints of regret.

``Wearing the tassels was good for us young girls because men were scared to touch and abuse us,'' said 16-year-old Bongiwe Nkampule. ``Now that we had to take off the woollen tassels we will be vulnerable to abuse.''

The King's aides had argued that his marriage to a teenager in 2001 did not flout the rite because the ban was designed to discourage casual relationships, not marriage.

The abandonment of the rite comes days before the annual reed dance ceremony at which King Mswati traditionally picks a new bride from thousands of young girls who appear before him dressed in little more than beads and traditional skirts.

His lavish lifestyle, including indulging a love for luxury cars, contrasts with the abject poverty of most of his subjects. He has also come under international pressure to introduce more democracy in the country.

But the AIDS crisis is the most serious problem confronting this nation of over 1 million neighbouring South Africa.

According to a Ministry of Health and Social Welfare study released last week, 29 per cent of 15- to 19-year-olds are HIV positive. The report also said 40 per cent of Swazis aged between 30 and 39 who opted for voluntary counselling and testing were found to be HIV positive in 2004 and 30 per cent of households have at least one person chronically ill because of AIDS. — AP

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