‘Virginity scholarships’ rejected in South Africa

You can’t have scholarships based on a girl’s virginity in South Africa.

That’s what the Commission for Gender Equality ruled Friday in response to a mayor in one of its districts awarding scholarships to young virgin women.

The Maiden Bursary Awards were announced by Uthukela district Mayor Dudu Mazibuko in January. The college scholarships were awarded to 16 girls who were still virgins. “To us, it’s just to say thank you for keeping yourself and you can still keep yourself for the next three years until you get your degree or certificate,” Mazibuko said, according to The Associated Press.

The mayor unveiled the scholarship in an effort to curtail teen pregnancy, STDs and exploitation.

Seven million people live with HIV in South Africa, according to the United Nations. It has the highest rate of HIV in the world. KwazuluNatal is one of the worst-affected districts in the country, according to Doctors Without Borders.

Teen pregnancy is indeed an issue that is growing, with 68,000 reported teen pregnancies rising to 100,000 in 2013, according to a government survey.

The girls who were awarded the scholarships would have had to undergo virginity tests as part of an annual ceremony hosted by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu. Elderly women in the district perform the unscientific tests for young women.

Thubelihle Dlodlo was one of the scholarship recipients. During a BBC interview in February, she said that staying a virgin was her only shot at earning an education, since her parents couldn’t afford to send her to college.

She said she didn’t see the virginity test as odd or outdated. “Virginity testing is part of my culture, it is not an invasion of my privacy and I feel proud after I’m confirmed to be pure,” she told the BBC.

The chairman for the Commission for Gender Equality, Mfanozelwe Shozi, didn’t buy the purpose of the scholarships when it was introduced earlier in the year.

“I think the intentions of the mayor are great but what we don’t agree with is giving bursaries for virginity,” he told The Associated Press in January.

“There is an issue around discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, virginity and even against boys. This is going too far.”

In January, Sisonke Msimang, a policy development and advocacy consultant for the Sonke Gender Justice project, told Al Jazeera that the scholarship had multiple layers of ridiculousness.

“Being sexually active and seeking an education have nothing to do with each other,” she said.