Lack of virgins frustrates Dipo rites, Non-virgins now allowed to partake in rites

The Greater Accra Region’s mothers in charge of the Dipo (puberty rites) at Dodowa in the Shai Osudoku District are now allowing non-virgins to participate in the ceremonies because it is getting harder to find virgin adolescent girls.

Girls who have had abortions, pregnancies, or births are still not permitted to participate in the rites.

They claimed that since many females were now engaged in sexual activity, they had no choice but to permit “non-virgins” to participate in the rites.

The change, according to them, will draw more teenage girls to the rituals that, in the past, were reserved for virgin girls between the ages of 10 and 15 ushering them into puberty or womanhood.