Women's Health Project - WHP - review - Women and Health - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

WIN News, Spring, 2002

FOCUS ON CULTURAL PRACTICES THAT ENTRENCH OPPRESSION AND HOW HEALTH SYSTEMS FAIL THE POOR

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e-mail: womenhp@sn.apc.org

CONTENTS:

"Virginity Testing Diverts Attention from the Lack of Male Responsibility // Fight Stigma and Discrimination to Turn AIDS Epidemic Back // Multiple Discrimination at Point Where Race and Gender Intersect // Amorous Materialism in the Age of HIV/AIDS // Breast Cancer: The Facts // Capacity-building for Evidence-informed Decision-making in HIV/AIDS Educational Programmes // Loosen the Fiscal Stranglehold and Serve the Poor.

FROM THE EDITORIAL BY NANA KGOSIDINTSI, WHP DIRECTOR:

Organisations such as WHP have to account to the wider society on our efforts towards achieving a society with a human rights culture which facilitates equality between women and men, a society in which women are able to make decisions about their lives and can enjoy optimum health. . . The media and public look for answers that can easily be understood. We can't offer any simple, clear reason.

Concerned people point to weaknesses in the criminal justice system and the fact that penalties for rape do not deter potential rapists. This is part of the problem. However, we also know that we live in a society that raises boy children - brothers, husbands and sons - who grow into rapists...

As we look at the current statistics with regard to rape which shows South Africa is failing women and children, we commemorate the Day of No Violence Against Women on 25 November. Less than a week later, on 1 December, World AIDS Day, we need to look at what is being done to reduce the burden of HIV infection among women.

At WHP we recognise that these two scourges are intertwined and driven by a common factor: gender inequality.

Addressing gender inequality is a task for all of us. For AIDS workers, activists, those involved in women's organisations and, increasingly, men's groups.

In this issue we examine some of the cultural practices that serve to entrench the patriarchy...

When girls are singled out for virginity testing or wearing of tassels as a symbol of chastity what signal do we give to boys and men who are not, likewise, compelled to abstain from sex, who seek out virgins in the hope of curing AIDS?"

AFRICAN WOMEN FINALLY SAY THE TRUTH ABOUT AIDS AND MEN

BBC NEWS: website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid

"African women delegates at an INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AIDS have strongly criticised African men, saying the attitude of men towards sex is putting women's lives at risk and helping to spread HIV throughout the continent. Women at the conference in Burkino Faso blamed the maledominated culture in African countries for infecting the highest number of women of any continent with the virus which causes the disease.

They said practices such as a refusal to wear a condom, intimidating young girls into having sex, polygamy, and rape were major problems. Superstitions such as purification. through having sex with a virgin were also endangering women's lives.

Delegates said that many African women had to run a gauntlet of taboo, male opposition and financial worry just to get access to HIV tests and the simplest drugs. These hurdles simply helped the virus to be transmitted from mother to child, in the womb and through maternal milk.

Women were widely regarded as chattels, mired in poverty and poor education and condemned to a life of child raising. One delegate stated that of 20 million people on the continent with HIV, more than half were Women, a higher percentage than anywhere else in the world.

The conference was told that finding solutions depended on practical work with local communities, rather than agreeing on grandiose declarations."