In a high profile case in South Africa, a court has cited religious & cultural freedom as grounds for allowing a fifteen-year-old girl of South Indian descent to wear a nose stud to school:

The nose stud story made headlines in 2004 when Navaneetham Pillay's daughter, a pupil at the school, returned from holiday wearing a nose stud.

When the school enquired, Pillay said her family was of South Indian descent and that they had decided to maintain a cultural identity by following traditions.

She said in the olden days, young women from that country had their noses pierced upon maturing, to show that they were eligible for marriage.

Although she conceded that the reasoning was no longer applicable, Pillay said her family still used the tradition to honour their daughters as responsible young adults.

She said her daughter was to have her gold stud replaced by a diamond one when she turned 16.

The stud was to be replaced by the girl's grandmother as part of a religious ritual to honour and bless her.

She said the ritual was a way in which the elders of the household bestowed worldly goods, including jewellery, upon young women.