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Hazel Marimbiza
MAIDEI has lived for many years with the shame of the virginity testing done on her.
But now an outstanding woman, with a flourishing career, she has kept her secret and only shares it as a lesson to young girls who look up to her.
“I am 55 years old now but I will not forget what I went through. I blame the failure of my marriage on that experience. I suffered from diminished sexual integrity and my former husband got fed up and deserted me,” she said, recalling the experience of 35 years ago vividly.
Like sheep, she said, they were led into a hut, and stood in a line. Each one waiting for her turn to be examined by the older women in her church.
Shivering in a thin cotton dress that barely kept away the early morning chill, Maidei says she bravely stood in the queue as one after the other, the girls entered the makeshift mud and pole hut.
When her turn came, she ducked the low doorway and entered the dimly lit hut. One of the women directed her onto a reed mat and told her to lie on her back.
“Throughout, I closed my eyes and willed the whole thing to be over. I felt icy hands on my genitalia prodding and probing. I was so ashamed and I wept silently when they said I wasn’t a virgin because I had not slept with anyone before,” she said.
But that was not the end, during a church service they were all paraded in front of the whole congregation so that congregants would know who was and wasn’t still a virgin.
Cheering was made for virgins but for girls considered to be “non-virgins” it was hell as they were considered unclean and guilty of sexual immorality.
The problem with virginity tests focusing on an intact hymen is that the membrane may break due to other causes like strenuous sports or activities.
Virginity testing has remained one of the most controversial and sensitive subjects in Africa. Churches, especially some apostolic sects and Guta RaMwari, still conduct virginity tests but some girls detest this practice as they say it leaves them prone to abuse by leaders of these churches.
“We are the most vulnerable at the church and the main culprits are the church leaders who usually abuse girls and even women under the pretext that they are casting out evil spirits,” said one girl who refused to be named.
She said those who are not virgins are then targeted by church elders.
“Those girls who are discovered to have lost their virginity are targeted by men who then argue that they have nothing to lose because they have already lost their dignity through losing their virginity. The virgins are not spared also as they become targets for the senior male members, who will then say they had divine revelation instructing them to marry the virgin,” she said.
While proponents of the cultural practice insist virginity testing is a stop gap measure that will discourage teenage girls from engaging in pre-marital sex, which exposes them to HIV and Aids infection, exponents say it is a wanton disregard for human rights.
Human rights organisation, Amnesty International, says virginity testing is a violation of women, as it equates a woman’s worth with an aspect of her body.
According to findings from some consultative meetings during the crafting of a gender-based violence (GBV) and equality policy for the Union for the Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe (Udaciza), some members of apostolic churches were still conducting virginity testing on young girls.
As such Udaciza is working hard to condemn compulsory virginity tests as it has increasingly become an issue of concern among faith communities, as some religious beliefs and practices are often used to justify or perpetuate violence against women and girls.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo