{"id":26172,"date":"2016-06-18T06:26:29","date_gmt":"2016-06-18T06:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/south-africa-virginity-bursaries-unlawful-rules\/"},"modified":"2016-06-18T06:26:22","modified_gmt":"2016-06-18T06:26:22","slug":"south-africa-virginity-bursaries-unlawful-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/south-africa-virginity-bursaries-unlawful-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa virginity bursaries unlawful, rules gender commission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{An official body in South Africa has ruled that university bursaries offered to proven female virgins were unlawful and should be scrapped.}<\/p>\n<p>The Uthukela municipality in KwaZulu-Natal province introduced the bursaries to reduce Aids and child pregnancies.<\/p>\n<p>But the Commission for Gender Equality ruled that a bursary &#8220;contingent on a female student&#8217;s virginity is fundamentally discriminatory&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The scheme caused an uproar when it was unveiled earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>In a ruling made after rights groups referred the scheme to it, the commission said: &#8220;It goes against the ethos of the constitutional provisions in relation to dignity, equality and discrimination.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Virginity is not intrinsic to the task of studying,&#8221; it added.<\/p>\n<p>The municipality, which is in a socially conservative part of South Africa, has not yet commented.<\/p>\n<p>The commission has given it 60 days to respond to its recommendation that the scheme should be closed, the AFP news agency reports.<\/p>\n<p>An estimated 6.3 million people in South Africa are HIV-positive, with more than one in 10 people living with the virus.<\/p>\n<p>Teenage pregnancy are also on the rise in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>In 2013, a government-backed survey found that teen pregnancies had risen to nearly 100,000, up from 68,000 just two years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>When the scheme was unveiled, Uthukela mayor Dudu Mazibuko said the virginity tests would not be carried out by the municipality or universities.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, schoolgirls who had already undergone the tests as part of an annual ceremony hosted by the Zulu king would qualify for the bursaries, she said.<\/p>\n<p>{{Teenage pregnancy in South Africa}}<\/p>\n<p>2013: 100,000 South African teenagers became pregnant<\/p>\n<p>2012: 81,000 teenage pregnancies<\/p>\n<p>2011: 68,000 teenage pregnancies<\/p>\n<p>180 out of 1,000 pupils become pregnant or make someone pregnant<\/p>\n<p>Teenage mothers account for 36% of maternal deaths every year<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-12872 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_87922358_reeddanceafp-3.jpg\" alt=\"Students selected for the scheme have already received virginity tests as part of an annual Zulu ceremony\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{An official body in South Africa has ruled that university bursaries offered to proven female virgins were unlawful and should be scrapped.} The Uthukela municipality in KwaZulu-Natal province introduced the bursaries to reduce Aids and child pregnancies. But the Commission for Gender Equality ruled that a bursary &#8220;contingent on a female student&#8217;s virginity is fundamentally [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26172"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26172"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}