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The king of the African nation of Swaziland has banned young unmarried girls and women from having sex for five years in an effort to stem the rise of AIDS in the country.
King Mswati III used the occasion of his 33rd birthday Sunday to revive the Umchwaso Chastity Rule. Under the order, young girls must wear yellow woolen tassels that send the message "do not touch me," according to the African Eye News Service. Men in violation of the rule would have the tassels thrown at them and be fined $152 or one cow.
The news service quoted Mswati spokeswoman Lungile Ndlovo as telling the nation's women, "You will be expected to observe a 5-year sex ban which means no shaking hands with males, no wearing of pants and you will be expected to wear woolen tassels wherever you go."
The ban does not extent to women 19 years old or older "already involved in a love relationship," Ndlovo said, but those women must wear red with black tassels while "those who are still virgins will wear blue with yellow tassels."
An estimated 22 percent of Swaziland's 1.1 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.