Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - August 19, 2005
Swaziland's maidens will forsake their tassles and the umchwasho chastity pledge on Monday, ahead of the annual reed dance ceremony where the king is expected to choose yet another new bride, state-run Radio Swaziland said yesterday.
"I have it in command from his majesty to order all the national flowers [maidens] to converge on Ludzidzini [royal palace] on Sunday so that they can drop the woollen tassles on Monday," said a spokeswoman for Swaziland's maidens, Nkhonto Dlamini.
"The woollen tassles will be burnt to mark the end of the ritual introduced by the monarch in 2001," she said in a message repeatedly aired by the radio station.
Introduced by King Mswati in September that year, the rite was aimed at reducing the spread of HIV and Aids in a country with the world's highest infection rate, where close to 40% of adults live with the disease.
Breaching the chastity vow before marriage was punishable and any person who violated a maiden was fined one cow, or around 1,300 emalangeni (8,000 baht).
But the practice had been attacked by social workers who said it was ineffective.
King Mswati himself breached the ban and was fined a cow for picking a teenaged girl as his ninth wife. Parents of young Swazi men said they were also glad to see the end of umchwasho, which they said left them impoverished as they had to help their sons pay for their transgressions.
The annual reed dance, where bare-breasted maidens perform before the king, will start on Aug 28 and last two days.
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