Cosmopolitan

Scholarships for virgins

Scholarships for virgins - will it work?
In a bid to reduce teen pregnancy rates and HIV incidence, girls living in a small village of Sierra Leone are being offered scholarships to attend university - but only if they're virgins.

A nurse will conduct an internal examination of the girls to determine their virginity (a wildly unreliable test, we'd assume) and if they're successful, they'll receive "a lucrative scholarship."

In Sierra Leone (which is the lowest-ranked country on the Human Development Index, and where adults have a life expectancy of just 42), 50,000 women are infected with HIV/AIDS. While incentives to encourage safe sex are commendable, promoting abstinence might be a bridge too far. After all, it hasn't worked in developed countries like the United States, where teen pregnancy rates are the highest in the world.
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Comments (29)

  • Posted 23 Jun 2009 by Narcissa
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    Oh, yes! No more condoms... Now, where will that lead us, Michael?? Even higher incidences of unwanted pregnancies and HIV infections. Gee, wont that make for "more stable family lives"... You are dreaming. Also, you cannot enforce Islam to be adopted be Western Society. Your comment reeks of extremist views and that WILL NOT be tolerated in Western Society. And don't you worry, Michael, there are plenty of Christians in our society and we are not disappearing anytime soon.
  • Posted 23 Jun 2009 by Eliza
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    WTG Narcissa, before you criticise the western culture, Michael, consider your own social shortcomings. Your culture may 'seem' to have a more stable and controlled environment but it is exactly because it is controlled, and lacks freedom that you stifle creativity and spawn hatred.......see now you probably don't like what i have just said, doesn't feel nice for someone to criticise your way of life does it.
  • Posted 23 Jun 2009 by Eliza
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    WTG Narcissa, before you criticise the western culture, Michael, consider your own social shortcomings. Your culture may 'seem' to have a more stable and controlled environment but it is exactly because it is controlled, and lacks freedom that you stifle creativity and spawn hatred.......see now you probably don't like what i have just said, doesn't feel nice for someone to criticise your way of life does it.
  • Posted 23 Jun 2009 by JC
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    Michael, if the western ways are so hiddeous to you why don't you hurry of and be a martyr don't you get all the virgins that you want once you are dead according to your religion, this is the same religion where women are continually controlled and treated as slaves with no rights, you ought to be careful what's hiding under the Burkher's when you get all your virgins it may just be a Christian revenge!
  • Posted 23 Jun 2009 by Shelley
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    It would take quite a while to drop down such large numbers of HIV/AIDS infections, but this seems like a step in the right direction. Let's hope that these women won't be pressured into anything whilst at university.
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