The King is a Dr Laura fan
As Swaziland’s females are banned from having Sex, they fear that their husbands and boyfriends will take a liking to “alternative comforts”.
King Mswati II of Swaziland issued a royal decree on 4th September banning sexual relations for the country’s females between 13 and 20 years of age. The decree is an attempt to curb the country’s rampant AIDS epidemic. However drastic the measure may seem, it is a sign of the desperation felt in a country ravaged by this disease.
AIDS has killed 50,000 people, 5% of the population, in the last 20 years and 25% are HIV positive. While western cultures may find a great source of mirth in the decree, the measure to ban sexual relations for females is a traditional defence mechanism, called the “Unchawashe”. By this practice, young females are forbidden to touch males in any way (they cannot even shake hands) and they are obliged to wear trousers instead of skirts. This, according to Mandla Luphondro, a teacher in the capital, Mbabane, dissuades the efforts of rapists.
Traditional leaders check that the Unchawashe is being observed and failure to respect the decree is punished by a fine of the donation of one cow to the royal herd.
While more conservative African practices such as female genital mutilation are to be abhorred in this day and age, the Unchawashe is proof that traditional African societies have always had a regulatory mechanism against social ills which transgress the limits of acceptable parameters.
The royal decree has met with strong criticism from Swaziland’s female population, who claim that whoever obeys it will remain unmarried, since their husbands and boyfriends will never wait five or six years to have sexual relations. It should be remembered that in Africa, sexual initiation takes place at a young age.
The social effects of a large number of girls obeying the decree are likely to be an increase in rapes of older women, spreading AIDS further.
This is not a case for a cheap laugh along the lines of “No Sex please, we’re Swazis”. It is a real, human catastrophe which neither traditional nor modern methods seem able to address effectively, raising the question whether AIDS is indeed a disease with natural causes.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
LISBON PORTUGAL
As Swaziland’s females are banned from having Sex, they fear that their husbands and boyfriends will take a liking to “alternative comforts”.
King Mswati II of Swaziland issued a royal decree on 4th September banning sexual relations for the country’s females between 13 and 20 years of age. The decree is an attempt to curb the country’s rampant AIDS epidemic. However drastic the measure may seem, it is a sign of the desperation felt in a country ravaged by this disease.
AIDS has killed 50,000 people, 5% of the population, in the last 20 years and 25% are HIV positive. While western cultures may find a great source of mirth in the decree, the measure to ban sexual relations for females is a traditional defence mechanism, called the “Unchawashe”. By this practice, young females are forbidden to touch males in any way (they cannot even shake hands) and they are obliged to wear trousers instead of skirts. This, according to Mandla Luphondro, a teacher in the capital, Mbabane, dissuades the efforts of rapists.
Traditional leaders check that the Unchawashe is being observed and failure to respect the decree is punished by a fine of the donation of one cow to the royal herd.
While more conservative African practices such as female genital mutilation are to be abhorred in this day and age, the Unchawashe is proof that traditional African societies have always had a regulatory mechanism against social ills which transgress the limits of acceptable parameters.
The royal decree has met with strong criticism from Swaziland’s female population, who claim that whoever obeys it will remain unmarried, since their husbands and boyfriends will never wait five or six years to have sexual relations. It should be remembered that in Africa, sexual initiation takes place at a young age.
The social effects of a large number of girls obeying the decree are likely to be an increase in rapes of older women, spreading AIDS further.
This is not a case for a cheap laugh along the lines of “No Sex please, we’re Swazis”. It is a real, human catastrophe which neither traditional nor modern methods seem able to address effectively, raising the question whether AIDS is indeed a disease with natural causes.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
LISBON PORTUGAL
