Virginity Testing and the War against AIDS

Many cultures in the past placed a premium on the virginity of girls and young women before marriage. Several still do, and in some places where the practice had declined there has been a return to so-called virginity testing to determine whether a girl has ever had sexual intercourse. In South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province, and in the neighbouring kingdom of Swaziland, girls are routinely inspected to check if they are virgins. The reason for the practice, it is said, is to 'preserve beauty, pride and a valuable asset of the nation. Women are regarded as flowers of any nation and each nation has its specific features and perceptions of what value is.'[1]

Linking Virginity to HIV/AIDS Prevention

Virginity testing is now being touted as one method to check the onslaught of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, presumably to encourage abstinence, which is one of the ABCs of preventing the spread of the virus. One of the advocates of virginity tests is South Africa's immediate former Deputy President Jacob Zuma who, while still in office, was reported as having encouraged girls to take the tests as a way of curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS and reducing the prevalence of early pregnancies. Mr Zuma referred to virginity as a girl's 'family's treasure,' saying that traditionally girls 'would only have sex when permitted to do so by their families after marriage.'[2] In Uganda, one Member of Parliament organizes bursaries to enable needy girls to university, provided that they pass a virginity test. He links virginity tests to the prevention of exposure to AIDS. [3]

The South African Parliament in June 2005 passed a Bill to prohibit virginity testing. This drew fierce opposition from proponents of the custom. Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini protested that he was not consulted by the government before the law was enacted, and his supporters are reported to have vowed to defy the ban on this age-old tradition. [4] Many of the girls who undergo the inspection say that they are doing so of their own volition and in exercise of their right to practise their culture and traditions. On the other hand, human rights advocates say the tests are ''discriminatory, invasive of privacy, unfair, impinging on the dignity of young girls and unconstitutional.''[5] The debate brings into focus the sharp clash between the right to practise culture and other human rights of bodily integrity and equality as well as sexuality rights.

Are Virginity Tests an effective Weapon in the War against AIDS?

Virginity tests are unlikely to prove a realistic or useful HIV/AIDS prevention method, and may even be an obstacle for several reasons:
A look at the implications of adopting virginity testing as a tool in preventing HIV transmission:

• Linking virginity and by extension 'purity' moralizes the HIV/AIDS status of people and this is not effective in tackling the disease. It merely leads to discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS. Virginity tests rely on shame and the fear of stigmatization, rather than free choice, to encourage girls to abstain from sex before marriage. In some communities, girls who pass the test wear a colourful dot on their foreheads to show that they are 'pure'. [6] Those who fail the test are shunned, and this is likely to cause immense psychological and emotional trauma to them and stunt their social development. Further, it is likely to lead to people failing to disclose that they are HIV positive and consequently missing out on the benefits of living positively with the virus and drawing on a support system, which has been shown to delay the onset of full blown AIDS and to improve the quality of life of those with AIDS. Countries such as Uganda have been successful in bringing down infection rates largely due to their policy of removing the stigma surrounding the disease.

• Moreover, virginity testing fails to take into account involuntary sexual encounters such as rape. Many girls and women, out of shame, do not report that they have been raped. In a country like South Africa which has a notoriously high incidence of rape, a girl who has been raped would undergo trauma on several levels if she had to undergo a virginity test.

• In some parts of Southern and Eastern Africa a myth has arisen that an HIV positive man can be cured by having sex with a virgin. This has seen the rape of many girls, from infants to young women, leading to their infection with the virus. Virginity testing would be a dangerous companion to the myth, serving to confirm which girls are virgins and exposing them to the great risk of being raped and contracting HIV.

• Virginity testing places the responsibility of preventing HIV/AIDS on girls and women and this is not an effective way to combat the scourge as global statistics indicate that HIV/AIDS is mainly spread through heterosexual sex. Both men and women have the responsibility to prevent HIV transmission. Although there have been calls for boys to undergo virginity testing as well, these have been few and far between. It is mostly girls who are tested as they are the ones who are expected to remain 'pure' before marriage. Most cultures that venerate the girls' virginity do not similarly venerate boys' virginity.

• HIV/AIDS is also spread within marriage and a girl or young woman who has avoided contracting the virus before marriage may contract it afterwards from her husband. She may even contract it from another partner if the main driving force for her abstention from sex prior to marriage was to avoid the shame and stigma of failing a virginity test. The tests may therefore just temporarily suspend the risk of getting the disease.

• Virginity testing may merely result in young people avoiding vaginal intercourse and having other forms of sexual intercourse such as anal or oral intercourse, through which HIV can still be spread.

• In any case virginity tests are often inaccurate. The most common test is checking whether a girl's hymen is intact, but many girls are born without the membrane, or it is ruptured in other ways such as during sport. Around the world, there are numerous other traditional ways to test whether a girl is a virgin, and these are based on myth, such as the test to determine whether a girl's urine is 'clear and sparkling' as a virgin's should be. Moreover, the presence of a hymen is not necessarily an indication that a girl or woman has never had sexual intercourse. In Egypt, China, amongst some ethnic groups in the United States, and in many other countries it is becoming increasingly common for women to have surgery to restore their hymens. The presence of a hymen is not therefore any indication of a woman's HIV status.

South Africa has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world, and its leaders have been criticised for burying their heads in the sand about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and for suggesting doubtful ways of tackling the virus, instead of tried and proven methods of preventing transmission. The South African government's official stance is against virginity testing, but it remains to be seen whether the ban will really be effective in preventing the practice given that the tests have received strong support from some of the country's leaders and are gaining in popularity.

Notes:

1. Report on Consultative Conference on Virginity Testing held in South Africa on June 12, 2000 by South Africa Commission for Gender Equality and the South Africa Human Rights Commission.
2. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/3683210.stm
3. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4700171.stm.
4. See http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=5052
5. Teboho Maitse, a member of the South African Commission on Gender Equality quoted in 'Ban on virginity testing raises ire of Zulus.' Ibid.
6. See http://www.aegis.com/news/lt/1999/LT990702.html