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| Monday, November 12, 2001, updated at 14:05(GMT+8) |
Swazi King Pays Fine for Violating His Own Sex Ban |
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Swaziland's king paid the traditional fine of one cow Sunday for violating his own ban prohibiting girls under age 18 from having sexual relations.
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Swaziland's king paid the traditional fine of one cow Sunday for violating his own ban prohibiting girls under age 18 from having sexual relations.
About 300 young women marched to a royal residence outside of the capital, Mbabane, and laid down their symbolic chastity belts a multicolored tasseled scarf in protest of King Mswati III's choice of a 17-year-old as his ninth wife.
The cow was then speared, roasted and eaten in a festive gathering held by the young women.
Concerned by the high rate of HIV infection in his country and describing teen-age girls as "flowers that should be protected," the 33-year-old king in September reinstated the traditional chastity rite of "umchwasho" banning girls under the age of 18 from having sex.
More than 25 percent of adults in Swaziland are infected with HIV, according to the United Nations. The disease has already killed tens of thousands of Swazis.
According to Swazi custom, a man must pay a cow as a fine if he takes an underage girl as his wife after the ban is declared. Mswati's newest wife, Notsetselelo Magongo, is 17.
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