See the Village where Virginity Certificate is Awarded to Girls After Virginity Has Been Tested

Every year thousands of young women around South Africa are tested to find out if they are a virgin – someone who has not had s*x. While some respect this as a cultural practice, others find it degrading.

This is a popular tradition in South Africa, especially among the Zulu ethnic group who reside mainly in kwaZulu Natal province.

Girls who participate in this ceremony must have their virginity tested by a qualified virginity tester and this is done in a secluded room using bare hands. The girl being tested must lie on her back with her legs open. The tester then opens her vagina with both hands and looks inside, apparently to see if her hymen is intact.

“Some testers would use a liquid in a small cap and pour it into the vagina. The idea was that if you are still a virgin, only a small bit of that liquid would flow into your vagina, but if your vagina has been opened by sleeping with boys, then the liquid will flow in easily,” Amanda, a local explains. If all is well, the girl is given a virginity certificate.

Narrating her experience, Nomalanga’s says her father was the one who insisted that his four daughters get tested and that he would get the results. No-one ever explained to her or her sisters why it was being done. Even when they were at university, far from home, her father would regularly send for them to come home to get tested.

Nomalanga says she “hated and felt angry about” the invasion of her privacy, the fact that she was forced to do this by her father, and that most often it would be performed by a total stranger who would be touching her private parts. When Nomalanga’s father found out that one of his daughters was not a virgin anymore, he disowned her and never spoke to her again.

Over the years, human and women’s rights groups have made calls for the practice to be banned saying that it is archaic and a violation of their rights. But locals say it is necessary especially in the wake of HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

Meanwhile, we would like to hear from you. Do you think this practise should be encouraged or abolished? Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.