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All photograps Ellen Elmendorp for The
New York Times |
| Zulu leaders have called virginity tests a revered tradition ideally
suited to address modern ills. |
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| To many advocates of women's and children's rights, the practice of
virginity testing is unscientific, discriminatory and - to girls who are publicly and
perhaps falsely accused of having lost their virginity - emotionally searing. |
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| A recent virginity-testing ceremony was also a coming-of-age celebration
for the two young girls seen wrapped in blankets. Their parents sponsored the ceremony,
which featured prayers to ancestors, a dip in a moonlit river, and the slaughter of a
goat. |
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| Jabu Mdlalose, front, and elders in Lamontville, South Africa, tested a
girl and decided she was not a virgin. |
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| A celebration in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, after a virginity-testing
ceremony. |
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| Duduzele Mquadi, a tester, with Karabo Ngobese, 19, who was found to be a
virgin. "At first it was embarrassing," Ms. Ngobese said of the test. |
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