Stakeholder #1: The student edition

Description:

• The students are one of the main stakeholders in this story. If it wasn't for them protesting the government, then none of this would even be happening right now. People often see students as unruly teenagers who don't know what they're talking about and often get ignored in multiple global conversations. Students are the future of the world yet are often treated like a mosquito buzzing in your ear, constantly there and making noise but always being swatted away in annoyance. Physically, this specific group of students from South Africa were encountered through emotionally charged protests and riots to lower the tuition costs so they could actually afford to go to college. They were fighting for their right to their education. Digitally, this energized group can be found on any blog or social media network since that's what our generation does best. However, there are two subgroups of students that can be found within the main stakeholder. There are the protesting students and the students who received the virginity grants. The world stares at the students who received the controversial grant with awe and wonder, looking at them as they would animals in a zoo. Whereas the other protesting students, once they won their case, were regarded as poor kids who were fighting tooth and nail to hang onto the last thing they have in this life, which would be their stab at breaking out of poverty (in the world's eye). 

Guy, Rodd, and Dan. "College Costs." 7/10 via cartoonstock.com. Licensed for noncommercial reuse.

Claims:

• The students who received the grant don't want the grant to be banned, because that means they won't be receiving that money anymore. As one 22 year-old recipient said, "I am proud to be a virgin, I did not know it could open so many doors for me." She sees virginity as her job since she's literally being paid for it.

• College is too expensive. Everyone knows that the cost of college has risen exponentially, but the only people who have to deal with its consequences are the students. One of the grant recipients said she "went to the municipality because her family did not have money to pay her tuition fees." This is the exact reason why the students were protesting. College is no longer affordable and now the only way someones can afford school is if they are a girl and a virgin.

• The virginity tests are a perfectly valid way to judge "pureness." This is a Zulu tradition that has been heavily prevalent in determining the status of women. As one recipient puts it, "They open the vagina and look, but they don't insert anything in it. I have never heard of them getting it wrong." Virginity tests are such a normal part of the Zulu culture, it doesn't even phase the girls who are asked to be a part of it for scholarship money.

Refutation:

• I, as a fellow broke college kid, can relate to the students who are receiving funding from this grant since I wouldn't want to give up the money either. College in America is expensive as hell so I don't even want to think about what it would be like in South Africa. Not to mention that social and gender standards are so ingrained into these girls heads that they believe that having sex can deviate a person from their studies, yet men seem to be excluded from this standard. Plus, the virginity tests that have been a large part of the Zulu culture for generations don't have any medical or scientific backing. For God's sake it's not even doctors who are performing the tests, and all the people who perform these "virginity tests" look for is if the hymen is intact or not, which can be broken multiple ways besides sex.

Similarities:

• The claims that these girls make are much different than what the rest of the world has to say. Actually, the only person who is on their side for keeping the virginity grant is the mayor herself who drafted the scholarship. Every other organization, and even other students, are calling for the grant's recall. However, even though abolishing the grant may be a step forward for the women's rights movement, it also means that these girls may not be able to afford to go to school anymore.