What Is Behind the 'Open Your Books and Close Your Legs' Call in South Africa?

Today's cultural progress and awareness did not save South African countries from illiteracy and dogmatism, resulting in teenage pregnancy that became a problem in need of addressing to secure better futures for girls and for boys as well.

Human rights organizations, like UNICEF, has called for sex education in South Africa, to treat sexual development as a standard, and a natural part of human development.

In other words, African teenagers should be taught how to have safe sex instead of being abstained from talking about it.

Being sexually uneducated has led African countries to have the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy in the world.

The Regional Health Minister Phophi Ramathuba’s visit to one of the African schools, has brought this issue to light.

The health minister has come under fire in South Africa when telling schoolgirls to “open your books and close your legs.”

 

Open Books; Close Legs

South Africa Minister of Limpopo province, Phophi Ramathuba, was under sharp criticism after her visit to Gwenane secondary school in the township of Sekgakgapeng on Wednesday, January 12, 2021, to mark the first day of the new academic year.

In a bid to reduce teenage pregnancy, the minister, addressing students, said: “Open your books, and close your legs; do not open your legs, open your books instead.”

Social media users were outraged, criticizing the minister’s statement as it was directed to girls in particular.

Responding to these attacks, Ramathuba said that the message was addressed to boys as well, stressing that the visit was to interdict sex at an early age and reduce pregnancy rates among teenage girls, so it was a piece of advice.

During an interview with SABC News, the minister said that “girls were being lured by older men using luxuries like expensive wigs and smartphones,” and that she “used ‘slogans’ because when talking to young people, you need attractive and easy language to make sure that the message has been delivered.”

“Open and close are easy words that the pupils are going to understand, I do not see anything wrong about that, it was a simple topic sentence,” she pointed out.

 

 

On South African news site TimesLIVE, the minister said that her statement had been taken out of context.

She stressed that she “told the boys also to focus on their education and not sleep with girls,” and her constituents in Limpopo “appreciated the message.”

“They were even saying that they were afraid to say these things and thanked me for calling a spade a spade,” she said.

The video of her speech at school has led some people to comment and say that “this was not an appropriate way to talk to kids about abuse, sex and consent,” while opposition politician Siviwe Gwarube called the remarks “deeply problematic.

“This was an opportunity to have a meaningful conversation with these students about consent; instead, you victimize and blame, and place girls under pressure,” she posted on Twitter.

 

Lack of Sex Education

“I went to the hospital for back pain and stomach issues. Well, they found it, I was six weeks pregnant with twins,” said a pregnant teenager in Uganda, when she discovered by chance that she was pregnant, ALU Global Focus reported.

The girl did nothing wrong but growing up in a society where talking about sex is taboo.

Silencing sex talks in Uganda has led to an increase of teenage pregnancy rates. According to the country’s 2011 Demographic and Health Survey, around a quarter of girls between the age of 15 and 19 have delivered a baby or are pregnant, whereas South African government statistics indicate that in 2020, about 33,400 girls under the age of 17 gave birth.

When looking behind the reasons, the lack of comprehensive sexual education in most African countries, may be the main contributor, leaving many African young girls in the dark of how to become pregnant.

Back to Uganda, home of child marriages, in the Wakiso District, in particular, young boys and girls are sexually active before marriage with a total absence of adequate knowledge of sexual and reproductive health.

Those adolescents are engaging in “unsafe sexual intercourse and being sexually abused because they are oblivious of what is right and wrong when it comes to relationships and sexual intercourse,” according to ALU Global Focus.

The truth is that the majority of teenagers who get pregnant have no idea how it happened, like the girl-mother mentioned above, who did not even know that she was pregnant.

Teenage random pregnancy is particularly linked to the lack of information and awareness about reproduction, peer pressure, protected sexual intercourse and early engagement in sexual activity.

Talking about sexual and reproductive health openly with teenagers in Uganda is not an easy thing; it is forbidden.

Hence parents always resort to teach their children abstinence, “especially in the conservative corners of Uganda where sex talks are still considered a taboo,” according to the same source.

 

Pregnant at 12 and Proud!

Being a major contributor, random pregnancy has unfortunately led to maternal and child mortality, according to the United Nation agency, the UNICEF.

Because of unhealthy living conditions, many complications relating to pregnancy and childbirth, are the leading cause of death for girls aged between 15 and 19, in addition to health risks and complications due to their immature bodies.

The majority of adolescents' pregnancy “is neither planned nor wanted.”

“In countries where abortion is prohibited or highly restricted, adolescents typically resort to unsafe abortion, putting their health and lives at risk,” ALU Global Focus reports.

This girl, for example, was only 12, and she was extremely proud of her pregnancy.

The Afrinik tells the story of this pregnant South African teenager who has been at the center of social media debates in 2018, “after revealing that she was pregnant at such a premature age, showing so much pride.”

Poverty, illiteracy, and the lack of accessible health facilities, result, in many ways, to random teenage pregnancies.

Without any protection, girls under 19, become pregnant having no idea of how that happened.