MBABANE, Dec 17 (AFP) - Swaziland's royal family has brought back the eldest daughter of King Mswati III to promote traditional chastity vows that could help the country in the fight against AIDS.
Princess Sikhanyiso Dlamini, 14, who attends school in Britain at the weekend, said she came back for the holidays to encourage reluctant girls to take the Umchwasho chastity pledge for unmarried women under 23.
"I am very proud of the tradition and what it stood for, so I would like to encourage young maidens to take up the woolen tassels," the princess said upon her arrival at the Matsapha Airport southeast of Mbabane.
The princess displayed her own tassels, saying she was concerned that young maidens were refusing to take the vow to wear the tassels -- which hang from a band worn around the head -- and forswear sex until marriage.
King Mswati III, the last absolute monarch in Africa, announced in September the reintroduction of the age-old tradition.
It requires girls up 18 to wear blue and yellow "don't touch me" woollen tassels, while young women 19 and older wear red and black tassels.
The king announced the move in an effort to combat AIDS, which has killed more than 50,000 people of a population of one million in the tiny mountain kingdom wedged between South Africa and Mozambique.
The young princess has come under fire from young Swazi girls because she was being educated in Britain and therefore was not bound by the rules of her own country.
"The school would not allow me to wear it on the premises because they feared it would draw unnecessary attention. The fact that I was not home does not mean I do not respect the chastity rite, as I will also be expected to pay the fine should I breach its rules," she said.
Breaching the chastity rite incurs a penalty of one cow, or 1,300 emalangeni (108 dollars).
Mswati, 33, paid an ox after picking a 17-year-old girl as a fiancee.
Princess Sikhanyiso assured reporters that she wore the tassels during the weekends in London, where she lives with her grandparents.
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