gender

Time to support women who bear the burden of HIV and AIDS writes Paul Pope

Have you heard of the 'feminisation of AIDS'? It means that HIV and AIDS is increasingly affecting women and girls over men and boys in developing countries. Research by UNAIDS this year shows that young women and girls can be up to 13 times more likely to be HIV-infected than young men, in some countries. In the nine most heavily infected African countries, 59 per cent of adults and nearly 75 per cent of young people infected with HIV are female. (Statement to the Fifty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women, 26 February - 09 March 2007, UNAIDS, New York).

Why is this happening? A global network of HIV-positive women, the International Community of Women Living with HIV and AIDS, and UNAIDS' organisation Global Coalition on Women and AIDS have no doubts. The disempowerment of women in developing countries - politically, socially and economically - is at the root of the problem.

My own direct experience during 10 years' work on HIV and AIDS in southern Africa and India is that women who are economically dependent on their husbands or male partners cannot afford to risk losing their children and home: either by telling their husbands or partners that they want them to remain faithful, or by trying to abstain from sex if they believe their partner may be infected through having been unfaithful.

Progressio has found that violence against women significantly contributes to the transmission of HIV in the 11 countries where it works. Research by Columbia University School of Social Work and others reviewed by the Harvard School of Public Health in 2006 found that women who experience violence from their partner are at a greater risk of HIV infection. This is because domestic violence, or the threat of it, reduces women's ability to choose to abstain from sex, demand that their partners remain faithful or negotiate safer sex. In countries with high rates of rape such as El Salvador and Peru where Progressio works, the risks of HIV infection are all too clear. 

UNAIDS figures show that every day 7000 women and girls become infected with HIV around the world. Once infected, their political, social and economic disempowerment continues to exert its influence. They will not only experience more stigma, discrimination and blame than men, they'll be more vulnerable to violence, rejection and abandonment.

So what can we do to support the 7000 women and girls who'll become infected today, and importantly prevent 7000 becoming infected tomorrow? HE Msgr Celestino Migliore, speaking on behalf of the Pope at the United Nations general assembly in March, said: 'Empowerment of women refers to increasing their social, political, economic and spiritual strength, both individually and collectively, as well as to removing the obstacles that penalize women and prevent them from being fully integrated into the various sectors of society … That women in society must be involved in decision-making is not only right for reasons of equality, but also for the specific insights that women bring to the process.'

It is important that these valuable messages are translated into the church's HIV and AIDS prevention work. The Church needs to recognise the powerlessness of women and their resulting lack of choice. Progressio tries to tackle this powerlessness in many of its programmes. In Latin America for example, it works with Catholic church-based organisation Centro Bartolomé de las Casas in El Salvador to enable men to challenge the 'machismo' behaviour prevailing in Salvadorean society. And Progressio's partner in Nicaragua, Puntos de Encuentro, produces radio and television programmes from the perspective of women and young people in order to challenge discrimination. These partners seek to engage men and women to recognise that respect for people needs to be at the basis of all relationships, whether on an individual or a social level. Respect for women is shown not just on an individual level, but as Mgr Migliore illustrates, in the wider social, economic and political contexts too.

Progressio would like to see the church actively promote these beliefs by engaging more with women affected by HIV and AIDS to learn of their needs, put appropriate services in place to meet them and so empower them. The church could also seek to change men's attitudes to increase their responsibility in preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS, and help them understand the day-to-day realities women and girls face when trying to protect themselves from HIV infection.

Progressio represents the interests of people living with HIV and AIDS by working with the church and other faiths on these very issues.

Paul Pope is Progressio's HIV and AIDS advocacy coordinator

1. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/pihhr/files/Final_Literature_Review.pdf

2. HIV/AIDS and Violence Against Women and Girls: Southern Africa, Fact sheet, UNAIDS (2004), http://womenandaids.unaids.org/documents/factsheet_violence.pdf