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Fighting AIDS with Virginity

Several months ago, a Ugandan legislator proposed offering "chastity scholarships" in poor rural areas. His hope was that the programme, in which proven virgins can attend college at no cost, would encourage girls to resist entreaties from older men offering them money and security in exchange for sex. For vulnerable girls and young women in many parts of Africa - including those orphaned by AIDS - sex has long been a way out of grinding poverty, overcrowded homes and uncertain future. It is even said that "sex is a poor girl's food." Now, however, the sexual behaviour of African girls has become a focus in the war on AIDS. In Uganda, South Africa and other countries, governments are promoting female sexual abstinence before or outside marriage as primary means of combating the disease. "Saving yourself for marriage is the right thing to do," read government billboards. Suleiman Madada, the Member of Parliament who is promoting chastity scholarships, said he hoped the programme would reduce the incidence of AIDS in his district and help steer desperate young women away from sexual arrangements that can ruin their lives. "This will promote morals and promote girls' education," he said. But some critics, including the group Human Rights Watch, assert that the push for abstinence has been motivated by politics, not purity. Critics also argue that testing for virginity is traumatising and could stigmatise girls who have been raped. Some people have raised concerns that virginity tests may be inaccurate and that girls who fail may be ostracised.

Emily Wax, The Guardian Weekly, Oct 14-20, 2005