Swaziland Looks to Revive ‘Chastity Rite’ to Fight AIDS
King Mswati III of Swaziland, where 50,000 people have died of AIDS-related causes, announced that the government will resurrect a "chastity rite," whereby young women would wear different colored tassels depending upon their ages, to "preserve virginity among girls and combat AIDS," Agence France-Presse/New York Times reports. "A man who dares touch a lady wearing a woollen tassel will find himself having the tassels thrown at him and the girls will then converge at the man's home, where they will demand an animal which they will feast on," the king added (Agence France-Presse/New York Times, 9/15).
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