South Africa: Gender Commission “Testing Virginity Is discriminatory”

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 state introduced the bursaries to reduce child pregnancies and Aids.

But the Commission for Gender Equality ruled a bursary “contingent on a female student’s virginity is fundamentally discriminatory”.

The scheme caused an uproar earlier this year when it was unveiled.

“Virginity isn’t inherent to the job of studying,” it included.

The municipality, which is in a conservative part of South Africa, hasn’t yet remarked.

The commission has allowed 60 days to react to its recommendation that the scheme should be shut to it, the AFP news agency reports.