The Big Event

Ok so I'm sure you all know that college is expensive. Well, in South Africa, tuition keeps going up, and up, and up, and...well you get the point. That is, until some pretty awesome students decided that they didn't want to pass on their debt to their kids and decided to protest and riot until finally the government realized that their entire youth will probably live with their debt their entire life and decided to put a freeze over all tuition fees and a promise that more grants and scholarships will become available.

Enter Mayor Dudu Mazibuko.

She decided to introduce a grant in an eastern KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa that only 16 girls are eligible to receive. That is, if they are, and remain, virgins while they get their education. Not even joking, this is something that happened about three weeks ago. The girls who get this grant have to have regular "virginity tests" every semester to make sure they're still "pure" and if they aren't, well, bye bye scholarship.

This act has raised so many questions regarding sexism and women's rights that even the South African Department of Women has gotten involved.

However, this action has rekindled a debate that has been going on since 2005: the legitimacy of these so-called virginity tests. Actually, in Zulu culture, by being a "certified" virgin gives a girl status. Since there are so many instances of sexual violence and teenage pregnancies and prostitution, virginity is usually held close and with white knuckles. Until a law was passed, virginity tests were pretty common. But there was so much backlash since these tests are 1. Medically unsound, 2. sexist, and 3. extremely invasive and not usually performed by doctors.

1. The tests revolved around checking if the hymen was intact, even though a hymen can be broken by almost anything, not just sex.

2. The fact that only girls have to get tested and not guys shows how much of a patriarchy still exists in so many parts of the world (down with the man! ...literally).

3. There are allocated members of the community who say they can administer a "virginity test" and is usually performed in their house under towels. Ew.

The men are not held to the same standard as women and that's where the debate really starts.

 

Sharp, Gwen. "Can We Make Math Pink?" 8/10/10 via thesocietypages.org. Licensed for noncommercial reuse.

Literally how everyone seems to treat the women's rights movement.