Men to Be Fined a Cow for Sex with Teenage Girls
Updated: Tue, Sep 18 7:47 AM EDT
SHESELWENI, Swaziland (Reuters) - Swaziland's king has forbidden Swazi men from having sex with teenage girls for the next five years and slapped a fine of one cow on those breaking the law.
"Those of us who were about to propose love to these girls should wait until the end of the five-year period, the girls will be ready and matured by then," King Mswati III told a crowd Sunday that had gathered to mark his 33rd birthday.
It was not clear why the King had decided to impose the ban for five years.
His birthday was in April but official celebrations were postponed because he fell ill.
Lungile Ndlovu, in charge of the country's traditional girls' regiment to which all unmarried teenage girls and young women belong, told the gathering any Swazi girl who falls pregnant out of wedlock over the next five years will be fined one cow.
The same fine will be applied to any man who impregnates an unmarried teenage girl.
She also said Swazi girls would be required to wear woolen tassels to signify their virginity.
She said the measures were needed to reintroduce "chastity and traditional values."
Mswati can choose a new wife every year from among thousands of virgins at an annual festival known as the Reed Dance.
Swaziland, a small, landlocked kingdom sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique, is grappling with growing poverty as its birth rate soars and breadwinners die from HIV/AIDS.
Estimates vary, but one U.N. study estimates close to a third of the country's adult population is infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
The country is also sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy, so the King's word amounts to law.
Updated: Tue, Sep 18 7:47 AM EDT
SHESELWENI, Swaziland (Reuters) - Swaziland's king has forbidden Swazi men from having sex with teenage girls for the next five years and slapped a fine of one cow on those breaking the law.
"Those of us who were about to propose love to these girls should wait until the end of the five-year period, the girls will be ready and matured by then," King Mswati III told a crowd Sunday that had gathered to mark his 33rd birthday.
It was not clear why the King had decided to impose the ban for five years.
His birthday was in April but official celebrations were postponed because he fell ill.
Lungile Ndlovu, in charge of the country's traditional girls' regiment to which all unmarried teenage girls and young women belong, told the gathering any Swazi girl who falls pregnant out of wedlock over the next five years will be fined one cow.
The same fine will be applied to any man who impregnates an unmarried teenage girl.
She also said Swazi girls would be required to wear woolen tassels to signify their virginity.
She said the measures were needed to reintroduce "chastity and traditional values."
Mswati can choose a new wife every year from among thousands of virgins at an annual festival known as the Reed Dance.
Swaziland, a small, landlocked kingdom sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique, is grappling with growing poverty as its birth rate soars and breadwinners die from HIV/AIDS.
Estimates vary, but one U.N. study estimates close to a third of the country's adult population is infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
The country is also sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy, so the King's word amounts to law.
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