{"id":223528,"date":"2016-06-19T06:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-19T06:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=223528"},"modified":"2016-06-19T06:00:59","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T06:00:59","slug":"south-africa-virginity-bursaries-unlawful-gender-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=223528","title":{"rendered":"South Africa virginity bursaries unlawful &#8211; Gender Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">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><strong>Teenage pregnancy in South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/D244\/production\/_88182835_dsc_0224.jpg\" alt=\"Phumla Tshabala with her newborn baby\" width=\"484\" height=\"272\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">2013: 100,000 South African teenagers became pregnant<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">2012: 81,000 teenage pregnancies<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">2011: 68,000 teenage pregnancies<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">180 out of 1,000 pupils become pregnant or make someone pregnant<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Teenage mothers account for 36% of maternal deaths every year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\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":14,"featured_media":223529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=223528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/223529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=223528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=223528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=223528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}