Virginity testing violates the rights of girls in Malawi

High-profiled Tumbuka chief Themba Mwankhunikira from the Rumphi area in Malawi recently called for the revival of a process to see if girls have had sex as a way of controlling the spread of HIV and AIDS.

High-profiled Tumbuka chief Themba Mwankhunikira from the Rumphi area in Malawi recently called for the revival of a process to see if girls have had sex as a way of controlling the spread of HIV and AIDS.

The system of inserting a middle finger into a girl’s private parts by grandmothers in days gone and past, informed parents if their daughter had had sex with a man, the chief said. He made these suggestions when the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) of Mzuzu Diocese made public their survey on cultural practices that negatively impact on women and children.

But while one chief was calling for a return to testing girls’ virginity, the survey revealed that during chiefs’ installation, young girls are asked to ‘entertain’ chiefs that attend the pomp ceremony. Diocesan secretary John Chawinga said that this was alarming as it places young girls in danger of contracting HIV. The chiefs vehemently denied the existence of the practice.

The government launched a National HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework (2000–2004) and established the National AIDS Commission (NAC) in 2001 to foster an independent and broad-based mechanism to achieve an expanded multi-sectoral response to the pandemic. But some of Malawi’s traditional leaders have been at the forefront of pushing for a return to cultural practices to control girls’, not boys’, sexual behaviour as a form of prevention for HIV. They argue that “checking girls” is a “cheap” prevention alternative.

Chief Mwankhunikira says girls in his area used to be checked once a week, more if she was behaving suspiciously that she had slept with a man. According to him, the system put a control on girls’ sexual behaviour, because girls stayed away from sexual activity until marriage, for fear of being checked.

Furthermore, Chief Mwankhunikira added, it was a futile exercise to “rush to check if a girl is pregnant or not (check) before she becomes pregnant…” Prior checks would be easier and yield better results than the AIDS awareness campaigns that have not worked in arresting the spread of the virus, the traditional leader argues.

Mildred Sharra of the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation however, challenges the “checking” of girls and describes the practice as gender-based violence and a gross violation of girls’ human rights.And if the system is to be revived, boys should also be checked to see if they have had sex. But it is not the traditional leaders alone who condone a return to the cultural practices of the past. One non-governmental organisation also went so far as to suggest that to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS, all girls should be tested to see if they are virgins or not.

But as a Malawian expression says, “you can’t clap hands with one hand”, so little will be achieved in stopping the spread of HIV by only targeting girls who are vulnerable to rape and who are unable to negotiate safer sex with either their male peers or older men. Also targeting one sex as being responsible for the spread of HIV is discriminatory.

There are not many young Malawian men today that can vouch for their virginity when fathers have been overheard boasting about their sons’ sexual prowess. As for the chiefs, there are customs taking place in their backyard that place young girls and women at risk of HIV, which require their more immediate attention, including the “entertaining” of the chiefs themselves at their installation ceremonies.

In a country where the HIV prevalence is estimated at 14-15 percent of adults, with urban HIV prevalence among adults at 23 percent compared to 12.4 percent in the rural areas, the custodians of culture need to look for strategies and methods that are holistic, and free of discrimination and gender bias.

Janet Karim is the Communications Officer for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Malawi. She is also among the first women media publishers in Southern Africa.

This article is part of the GEM Opinion and Commentary Service that provides views and perspectives on current events.

janine@genderlinks.org.za for more information.