Child Brides Being Kidnapped, Believed to be a Cure for HIV
The CNN Freedom Project tells the story about young women being kidnapped as child brides by those who believe that having s*x with a young girl can cure their HIV. In many African villages, girls as young as 12 years old are kidnapped and forced to marry older men. They speak of the term “Ukuthwala,” which translates to “pick up,” which justifies the abduction of young women. In some cases, the kidnapping occur with parental consent.
But a concerted campaign to educate these isolated communities of the illegality of under-aged s*x and abduction appears to be paying off.
Nombasa Gxuluwe, born in the Eastern Cape, is a field worker for the World Aids Campaign (WAC), and has dedicated herself to trying to end what is essentially the buying and selling of brides, many of them still children.
Nombasa and many other organizations have spent hours talking to the men in the villages, trying to make them understand that the rules are different now.
For many, like Timothy Nyawuse, there was simply no awareness that what was being done was wrong.
“We apologize for that as we did not know we were breaking the law,” he tells CNN.
Complicating the matter is a chilling, modern belief, as Nombasa explains: “There is a myth that if you sleep with a young girl who is a virgin and as a man you are HIV positive then HIV can be cured. That is why they are focusing on these young girls.”
Nombasa said many of the male abductors are older men, widowed by HIV. They then look for a younger “virgin bride” and invariably end up infecting them too.
The tradition has its roots in arranged marriages where parents or village elders have the final say on who girls should marry.
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This is just too ignorant for words. Can anyone really be this stupid and dumb in this day and age? I feel sorry for these young girls and pray they get the correct help.
wow yall sure do search for anything negative about black people….but anyway some people in certain parts of africa need to get out of the darkness..end the tribalism and nonsense…wake up
So, there is ignorance and violence against women all over the world.
Absolutely disgusting and a horrific nightmare for the victims vulnerable to such crimes.
This article is disturbing and troubling on many levels that societies exist like this in the world, kidnapping innocent children and using them as biat to cure HIV infected men by having s*x with child virgins is sickening and cruel. Many people are simply ignornant to the medical facts concerning AIDS/HIV and its remedies. Thankfully educational programs have been establised to inform villiagers of there crimes and the devastation it causes upon young lives and extended families.