SOUTH AFRICA: GRANTS FOR VIRGINITY
South Africa girls given student grants to remain virgins
Women's
rights activists have criticised a South African municipality for a scholarship
programme that funds studies for young women if they can prove they are
virgins.
On Friday, the uThekela
municipality, in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), announced that 113 students would receive
scholarships to pursue higher education in the country.
Sixteen scholarships
were specifically designated for sexually inactive students, as part of a
programme called Maiden's Bursary Awards. The programme started in January
2015, but it is unclear how many students were awarded the scholarship in 2015.
Sisonke Msimang, a
policy development and advocacy consultant for the Sonke Gender Justice project
in Johannesburg, said the municipality's decision was "a terrible idea
[that] had so many layers of ridiculousness".
"Being sexually
active and seeking an education has nothing to do with each other,"
Msimang told Al Jazeera.
Msimang described the programme as being an embodiment of "level upon level of patriarchal nonsense, unconstitutional misogyny and mixed-up madness".
Msimang described the programme as being an embodiment of "level upon level of patriarchal nonsense, unconstitutional misogyny and mixed-up madness".
'Pure
and inactive'
Jabulani
Mkhonza, spokesperson for the municipality, described the scholarships for
virgins as a way to encourage "girls to keep themselves pure and inactive
from sexual activity and focus on their studies.
"Those children who
have been awarded bursaries will be checked whenever they come back for
holidays. The bursary will be taken away if they lose their virginity,"
Mkhonza told AFP news agency.
Reacting to the news,
the Department of Women told Al Jazeera they were aware of reports of the
scholarship programme, and would be investigating the matter.
"We don't support
anything that undermines the rights of women. If these details are true, we
would definitely find it objectionable, and engage with the municipality to
resolve it," Charlotte Lobe, media liaison officer at the department of
women said.
Mkhonza, the
spokesperson for the municipality, told Al Jazeera he was not authorised to
respond to the criticism, and directed all inquiries to Mayor Dudu Mazibuko. Al
Jazeera was not able to reach her.
Activists argued that
not only did the scholarship undermine civil liberties; it was also
counter-productive and short-sighted in the larger struggle against HIV/AIDS in
the country.
South Africa is home to
6.4 million HIV positive people, the highest in the world. In 2014, Medical
charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) said 25.2
percent of KZN's adult population was HIV positive, compared to the national
average of 17.9 percent. Women in KZN were also disproportionately affected by
the virus, MSF said.
Another activist,
Jennifer Thorpe, said the
scholarship programme implied that discouraging women from sex would reduce the
spread of HIV, a strategy she said "silences conversation around safe sex,
consent, and importantly HIV medication and treatment.
"What is needed is
dialogue, information, and the provision of free contraception. This would be a
more strategic line of policy for the municipality to pursue," Thorpe wrote in the South African publication Mail & Guardian.
"Only young women
and girls are subjected to this practice. Boys are not tested, and hence are
not stigmatised or rewarded for their virginity."
One recipient of the
award told News24 she did not mind the
two check-ups she needed to take in order to apply for the scholarship. The
22-year-old second year pharmacy student said an elderly woman examined her in
June and July.
"They open the
vagina and look, but they don't insert anything in it. I have never heard of
them getting it wrong."
Msimang said criticising
the conditions of the scholarship should not be understood as an attempt to
thwart proposals that back abstinence.
"The longer a young
person, particularly a girl, abstains from sex, the better, so this is not
about suggesting that abstinence is a bad idea. But this type of programme
ignores the fact that sexual behaviour of young women is often not on their
terms.
"Many young women
don't have sex because 'they feel for it'. These are often choices out of their
hands," Msigmang added.
The municipality's
decision to award these scholarships comes at a time of extreme turmoil in
higher education in South Africa.
Since October, students
across the country, under the banner of the social media campaign #FeesMustFall,
have demanded that the government scrap university fees across the board.
Student activists argue that almost 22 years after apartheid ended, exorbitant
fees were now excluding the majority of from accessing higher education.
Thorpe said the
"purity" discourse distracts from the point that these girls simply
want access to affordable education.
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