Why Women are More Victims of HIV/AIDS-Group
From Chinedu Eze in Abakaliki
03/04/2004 22:27:50
http://www.thisdayonline.com/
Women's high rate of HIV infection has been attributed to cultural inhibition that constrain them from taking crucial decisions on their sexual life, which is in relation to traditional African system where the woman is subordinated.
A woman who is married does not have the rights to determine her sexual life, nor does she have the power to refrain her husband from having multiple sex partners as polygamy is still culturally accepted in African society.
This observation was made by the Director of Save Motherhood Ladies Association (SMLAS), a non-governmental organization (NGO), Mrs. Ugo Ndukwe Uduma who noted that women's greater vulnerability to the scourge stems from their low social, cultural and religious status.
"Typically, women are expected to leave the initiative and decision making in sex to males whose
needs and demands are expected to dominate and be satisfied at all times irrespective of the women's health condition."
In a lecture she delivered to working women of Ebonyi State at the weekend in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, Mrs. Uduma said that women suffer from lack of empowerment, which includes their inability to gather information on reproductive health issues and "unsafe and irrational blood use".
Mrs. Uduma said: "Harmful traditional practices have been identified as hindrances to women's ability to protect themselves from HIV infection"
She identified these practices as polygamy, wife inheritance, wife sharing, widowhood practices and lack of inheritance rights, including violence against women as well as poor legislation on women's rights.
Uduma remarked that gender inequality, women's lack of control over their health and decay in healthcare infrastructure have contributed in the spread of HIV/AIDS in addition to lack of acceptance of
barrier methods, poor quality of condoms and the unavailability of female condoms
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