| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Captain Compassion" |
| Date: |
12 Dec 2004 11:58:45 PM |
| Object: |
The Feminization of AIDS |
The Feminization of AIDS
NY Times ^ | Dec 13, 2004
This year, once again, the annual report from the Joint United Nations
Program on H.I.V./AIDS and the World Health Organization tragically
documents the way the global AIDS epidemic is still killing millions
of people and spawning hot spots in Asia and Eastern Europe. The most
striking news is that AIDS is fast becoming a disease that strikes
younger women disproportionately. Ignorance is part of the problem,
but the laws and social customs that keep women powerless and poor -
and subject to sexual exploitation - are far more insidious.
According to the new report's eye-opening analysis, AIDS is spreading
quickly into the ranks of women - both single and married - in regions
where AIDS is already well established. In sub-Saharan Africa, women
15 to 24 years old are three times as likely to be infected as men the
same age. In Thailand, 90 percent of AIDS transmissions a decade ago
occurred between sex workers and their clients. More recent estimates
suggest that 50 percent of the new infections are occurring between
spouses, as men who picked up AIDS from prostitutes pass it on to
their wives.
The soaring infection rates among younger women are driven partly by
social customs that require the women to remain ignorant of sex and
sexuality until they marry. Indeed, Unaids researchers have found that
a majority of young women in some nations have no idea how to protect
themselves from H.I.V. The root problem, especially in many developing
nations, is a pervasive gender inequality that keeps women from
amassing capital, asserting their rights under the law or even
deciding when to have sex. A staggering number of women reported that
their first sexual experiences came as a result of rape.
Marginalized in the economy and under the law, women in developing
nations are often left with sex as their only marketable resource. In
some parts of Africa, older men who take young lovers commonly help
the girl's family by paying for school fees and food. Young women who
are bartered this way have no standing to refuse sex or ask their
partners to use condoms. Marriage and fidelity offer little protection
from disease for these women, who typically marry older men who have
been sexually active for decades. In some areas, infection rates for
young married women who remain faithful are actually higher than for
single women not yet in permanent relationships.
AIDS education is crucial in fighting the epidemic. But information
alone is not enough. Countries with entrenched epidemics need to
enhance women's rights under the law and end retrograde traditions
that make them second-class citizens. Only then can women hope to
protect themselves.
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"Why would I listen to losers?" -- Arnold Schwarzenegger
"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
res0mp8t@NOSPAMverizon.net
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