Media Watch

Zulu Reed dance: virginity testing, purity (and prevention?)

While the Swazis are 'defending' their Reed dance virgins against “unscrupulous” men who aim to court and compromise them, the Zulu Reed dance is in a different, but related, pickle.

In a The New Age (TNA) article covering the weekend’s Zulu Reed dance, King Goodwill Zwelithini is quoted saying that many of the maidens in attendance were not virgins but had paid to secure fake certificates which said otherwise.

Some might scoff at the fact that the ever controversial virginity testing seems to be becoming a bit of a farce. But the heart of the matter is that virginity test or not, young women are having sex and possibly exposing themselves to HIV because abstinence is the lone arrow in their HIV prevention arsenal.