Culture, Tradition, Custom, Law and Gender Equality

Abstract

Traditional cultural practices reflect the values and beliefs held by members of a community for periods often spanning generations. Every social grouping in the world has specific traditional cultural practices and beliefs, some of which are beneficial to all members, while others have become harmful to a specific group, such as women. These harmful traditional practices include early and forced marriages (Ukuthwala as practised currently), virginity testing, widow's rituals, 'u ku ngena' (levirate and sororate unions[1]), female genital mutilation[2] (FGM), breast sweeping/ironing, the primogeniture rule, practices such as 'cleansing' after male circumcision, and witch-hunting.

[1]      Levirate unions occur when the deceased's surviving male relative inherits the widow of the deceased. Sororate unions occur where the widower is inherited by the deceased wife's surviving female relative. The inherited widow or widower becomes the wife or husband to the surviving relative of the deceased.

[2]      FGM is not just the cutting of the clitoris; it includes disfigurement, and the changing of the form or elongation of the labia as practiced by Tsonga and Sotho communities.