If you have trouble with your teens and loud music, look at this story from Swaziland
EZULWINI VALLEY, Swaziland (Reuters) — The king of Swaziland’s daughter was whipped by a palace official at a party of teenage virgins ahead of a festival where more than 50,000 maidens are available to become her father’s 13th wife, media said on Sunday.
By the way this could never happen in a place like Los Angeles (it’d be hard to find enough virgins):
Princess Sikhanyiso, 17, told the Times of Swaziland a palace official whipped girls, including beauty queen Miss Swaziland, at the party as a punishment after they refused to turn down the music. She was pictured showing her bruises.
Thousands of bare-breasted virgins will dance for Africa’s last absolute monarch in Monday’s Reed Dance ceremony, which King Mswati III has used to choose new brides.
THIS JUST IN: Bill Clinton is moving to Swaziland…
Critics say the ancient ceremony, meant to celebrate womanhood and virginity, has become little more than a shop window for the 37-year-old king to choose young brides.
The official, who was charged with supervising the princess and her friends ahead of the ceremony, denied he had whipped the girls, the paper said. No one at the palace was immediately available for comment.
This story certainly says something about the attitude towards women and parenting in the palace.
But if it happens again the Princess should turn the other cheek.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.