Someone might argue that a lot of the problems related to HIV/AIDS and rape in South Africa are related to cultural traditions and therefore can hardly be changed.

I gathered some cultural traditions that came to my mind. This is a totally random list:

• Grown up men in some cultures marry girls as young as twelve years old.
• La Tomatina – People in Spain throw tons of tomatoes at each other every year.
• Also in Spain people spend their Sundays watching bullfights.
• Carneval in Rio – People dance for 5 days until they pass out.
• Female Genital Cutting is being performed as rights of passage ritual – mainly in parts of Africa and the Middle East.
• Tattooing spilled over from Polynesia into the Western World.
• Ramadan and Lent are among some religious practices of self-restraint.
• Women being threatened for violating laws – even though they’ve been raped.
• Millions of Muslims take a pilgrimages to Mecca each year.
• Restrictions on what people are allowed to eat: Kosher food, Ramadan, Lent, No pork for some cultures etc…
• Thousands of Germans gather in tents each year for their Oktoberfest – drinking huge amounts of their beloved beer.

In order to make my point I could define three main buckets for these cultural traditions: Read More…

Posted under Gender equality