The King is seeking for a wife. 70,000 virgin maidens to dance for Swaziland’s King Mswati III

Tens of thousands of virgin maidens danced Monday for Swaziland’s King Mswati III in a traditional reed dance at Ludzidzini palace outside the capital Mbabane.
The final day of the annual dance attracted a record 70,000 girls, some of them as young as six years of age.
The girls — dressed in colorful Swazi regalia — came from all corners of the mountain kingdom in a display of pride in their culture and virtue.

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The ceremony has a more serious mission — to draw attention to AIDS and encourage abstinence among young women, in a small southern African nation ravaged by AIDS and poverty.

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”As a young Swazi woman, it is very important for me to be here. I have been attending the dance since I was 14 years of age,” university student Landile Hlongwa, 24, was quoted as saying.

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King Mswati has 13 wives, and he could pick another from among the dancers, according to the report.

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In 2005 the monarch triggered an outcry when he selected a 17-year-old to be his 13th wife just days after he ended an official ban on sex for girls younger than 18.

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