Swaziland's King Mswati III plans to abandon a campaign for teenage chastity that earned ridicule as old-fashioned and unfairly focused on girls - and that he is accused of ignoring.
News of the king's change of plan on Friday coincided with the release of government statistics revealing nearly a third of Swazi teens carry the virus that causes Aids, which Mswati had hoped to combat with his appeals to girls to remain virgins.
Alarmed at the high rate of HIV, Mswati in 2001 reinstated for five years the "unchwasho" rite, banning sexual relations for unmarried girls younger than 18.
Swazi girls were instructed to wear a tasselled scarf as a symbol of virginity. If an unchwasho girl were approached by a man, she was expected to throw her tassels at his homestead, forcing his family to pay a penalty of a cow.
When the king chose a 17-year-old as his ninth wife in 2001, 300 young women went to a royal residence, laying down their tassels in protest.
The king's aides argued the ban was designed to discourage casual relationships, not marriage. But Mswati surrendered the cow, which was roasted and eaten by the young women.
As a result of the criticism, the king decided to end the chastity rite a year early.
"I have it on command from his majesty to order all of the national flowers to converge on Ludzidzini royal palace on Sunday so that they can deliver the woollen tassels on Monday," said Nkhonto Dlamini, a leader of young Swazi women, in a broadcast on national radio.
The tassels will be burned at ceremonies on Tuesday.
The move comes just before the kingdom's annual reed dance ceremony, when the king traditionally picks a new bride from young women who dance before him dressed in little more than beads and traditional skirts.
The 36-year-old king has 12 wives, one bride-to-be and 27 children. His late father, King Sobhuza, who led the country to independence in 1968, had more than 70 wives when he died.
The king has come under pressure for resisting reforms to introduce more democracy in the country. His lavish lifestyle, including indulging a love of top-of-the range cars, contrasts with the absolute poverty of most of his subjects.
The crisis has compounded the poverty, with estimates that 480 000 people now carry HIV. Aids has hit Swaziland, with a population of about a million, harder than almost any country in the world.
According to results from a study by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, 29 percent of 15-19-year-olds are HIV-positive.
The report said that 42.6 percent of pregnant women tested at clinics were infected and 40 percent of adults aged 30-39, who opted for voluntary counselling and testing, were found to be HIV positive in 2004. - Sapa-AP