Esther Mandelstamm/February 8, 2008/3:59pm/Gender Issues
After the 11th conference in Furkina Faso, officials from the only pan-African non-profit organization dedicated to HIV-positive women are speaking out saying there is a lot to be done to fight stigma and violence against infected women. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified two reasons women and girls are more vulnerable than males to because of marital violence and rape. Village traditions of genital mutilation, wife inheritance (when a woman is given in marriage to her brother-in-law and childhood marriage) can be deadly. Heloo (president of the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa) says "It is important for people to recognize that these traditions, reserved for females, are linked to HIV." Violence gets worse for females after being diagnosed HIV positive; girls are often forced to drop out of school because of harassment. In many communities females are blamed for HIV transmission and are violently struck at. One of the first steps is stopping these village traditions. These women need trop training, economic assistance and education. Economic independence could help women protect themselves from violence; they will no longer be dependent of an abusive partner. Heloo says one of the conference goals is to begin planning an awareness campaign about women and HIV first in Africa and then to international audiences. About 600 participants from 24 countries attended the conference and discussed how countries can meet the U.N. Millennium Development goals by improving the treatment of the HIV-infected females.
Women in Africa are helpless due to traditions and the lack of women’s rights; it is so sad that these women are victimized. These women can not even seek protection in their own homes; many times the abuser is the husband. Not only do these women have to suffer from this debilitating illness but the stigma and abused associated with it. These women need help and protection and hopefully there will be some short of a solution found within these conferences.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-02-08-voa51.cfm
3 comments:
While I completely agree that the plight of women in Africa is made so much worse by the poverty and violence they are exposed to, let us not forget that women around the world, including in our own country, continue to suffer violence and rape and be more vulnerable to poverty than men. We can say "Shame on Africa" for treating its women this way; meanwhile the Equal Rights Amendment for women has not been passed, making it legal and acceptable for women to be paid less for doing the same jobs, and ok for employers to discriminate in hiring on the basis of gender.
Also I think you had a typo, the country is called Burkina Faso, not Furkina Faso.
This is an unfortunate reminder that women are still treated as objects in some areas and hopefully the media attention will increase awareness and actions will be taken to prevent this
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