prompted any rapes. Importance of education Ignorance with regards to HIV and AIDS infection serves as a barrier to prevention in numerous African nations. Education has helped women such as Betty Makoni speak out against the myth and attempt to dissuade people from believing the virgin cleansing myth. According to UNICEF, culture-based gender roles that prize innocence and ignorance in girls and that accept sexual licentiousness in men promote this myth. Girls may be forced to marry older men, which can increase the likelihood of HIV transmission to girls. The stigma attached to AIDS also stops many people from seeking information or health services to shield their status, contributing to further transmission. In popular culture The virgin cleansing myth is referenced in the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon. The minor character Mattumbo is stopped from raping a baby based on the belief that sex with a virgin will cure his AIDS. During the song "Making Things Up Again", Elder Cunningham tells Mattumbo that raping babies is against God's will, and invents a passage in the Book of Mormon in which God tells Joseph Smith to instead have sex with a frog to cure his AIDS. In Murdoch Mysteries, series 4, episode 10, “Voices”, the background of a murder of a man at a convent involves the possibility that the reason behind things that happened was that someone was looking for the virgin cure, with the assumption that a nun would be a virgin. See also Tapestries of Hope Madonna–whore complex Sexual violence in South Africa Sexual cleansing Droit du seigneur, an alleged legal right of European feudal lords to have sex with a subordinate woman, particularly on her wedding night References 16th-century introductions Child sexual abuse in South Africa Christian mythology European mythology HIV/AIDS Misconceptions Rape in South Africa Sexual urban legends Violence against women in South Africa Superstitions of Africa Hymen Virginity