Human Immunodeficiency Virus Crisis and Gender Issue in Africa - Essay Example

Writer’s name] [Professor’s name] [Course title] [Date] HIV/Aids Crisis And Gender Issue In Africa Introduction. Aids first appeared in 1959. Its definition states that it’s any of a group of retroviruses and esp. HIV-1 that infect as well as wipe out helper T cells of the immune system causing the noticeable decrease in their numbers that is diagnostic of AIDS - also known as the AIDS virus, human immunodeficiency virus. A retrovirus is one of a group of RNA- having viruses (as HIV) that create reverse transcriptase through which DNA is formed using their RNA as a pattern and included into the genome of contaminated cells and that comprise abundant tumorigenic viruses. During the 2000 year 5.3 million people were newly infected with HIV/AIDS. At the end of the 2000 year 36.1 million people will be living with HIV/AIDS. HIV the incurable disease...doesn't matter how rich or how poor you are. All the money in the world can't cure it nor fully prevent it from spreading. If you are infected, you're doomed.” But no, you are wrong" you would say, "Why does statistics show that most of the poor African countries like Ethiopia have the highest rate of HIV infected people?" The answer: Ignorance. The people there don't believe in using condoms, they have myths for example, if a man who is infected by AIDS sleeps with a virgin, he would be cured. People who use the same needle for injections are highly at risk for infection. The people in those POOR countries are provided with free condoms, clean needles etc. but they are still ignorant. But this entire still doesn't answer the question. You have to ask yourself first: was the country poorer before they discovered AIDS? Does poverty cause AIDS? No it's just the opposite; AIDS causes poverty. But why? You see a lot of adults (the sexually active and the productive, working group) get infected and die; there are few working people left. Hospitals and medical services are being put under great pressure, so the people must pay more tax; the people don't have money because there is no breadwinner etc. All of this leads to poverty of a country and a poor economical standard. Amongst our modern day society there are many confusions regarding aids. Many individuals seem to believe that HIV and aids are the same issue. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of the world that is most affected by HIV/AIDS. An estimated 29.4 million people are living with HIV/AIDS and approximately 3.5 million new infections occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2002. In just the past year the epidemic has claimed the lives of an estimated 2.4 million Africans. Ten million young people (aged 15-24) and almost 3 million children under 15 are living with HIV. An estimated eleven million children have been orphaned by AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. (http://www.tconline.org/onmission/toolbox/fastfacts/410671.html) African women and aids AIDS rate is higher among women than men, but many men are not being tested. 30% of young African women suppose that if a man looks in good physical shape then he possibly will not have AIDS. In the male-dominated cultures of Africa, many women and girls are forced to have sex with men (http://www.spusa.org/pubs/health_med/aidsinafrica/aidsinafr_interviews2.html). In fact, some infected men believe they will be cured not by medicine, but by having sex with virgins, thus causing 12 year old girls to become infected Human bodies are not the only thing suffering in this AIDS problem, businesses are also suffering too. The American Foundation for AIDS Research found that 80 percent of those dying are between ages 20 and 50, workers in their prime (www.union-network.org/unisite/regions/africa/pdf/labourissues/DigitalDivide-AfricaILOActrav-en.pdf). This causes a lack of productiveness that these nations need. Disease has lead to many undesired behaviors and misconceptions partially due to lack of education and availability of medicine. South Africa desperately needs AIDS awareness programs since lack of education and disease have isolated it from the world we live in. Nora Motshelanoka a 4 ½ month pregnant lady, diagnosed as HIV positive is very alone, very afraid that anyone would know her HIV-status because she fears the safety of herself and her child (Nicole, Itano). Ignorance has reached the level where some men believe that having sex with a young child will actually cure the disease. If AIDS treatment isn’t available in any means, then the civilized international community must do something. Standing still and watching the pharmaceutical companies extort a nation out of its wealth (if there is any) is truly a shame as moral values, lack of education and ignorance lead the daily lives of these people. In South Africa there is a myth that says that having sex with a virgin will cure you from HIV and many other sexually transmitted diseases. (http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/babyrape.htm) Adult men look for younger and younger girls to have sex with in order to cure themselves of AIDS. This sexual abuse represents a huge factor of the spread of HIV. Women that have serious relationships expose themselves to physical abuse if they request their partner or husband to wear a condom because they will feel offended as this implies that they are cheating. Men in small villages often leave during the week to go to work in more populated areas and it is common that in this time they have sexual intercourse with other women whom have contracted; women have no right to decide if they want to have sexual intercourses or not, they are without control of contracting the virus and are utterly powerless to help them selves out of the situation. This idea also provides for high levels of marital rape in societies which already have alarming rape rates. Due to the economical problems on the African continent, women have to submit them selves to men in order to survive. This should not be labeled prostitution but more of a cultural rule, that a man can decide with whom he wants to have sex and when, no matter what his economical status is. "Studies have confirmed that better-educated girls tend to start having sexual relationships later". Women that belong to upper class families pursue their studies therefore learn all about sexually transmitted diseases and their consequences and as a result learn to be more cautious. is said that men who live in the countryside in Southern Malawi believe that having AIDS enhances their masculinity the consequences of contracting the virus and therefore find that the men above are unconscious and are closing their eyes to a problem that is increasing and spreading across the country taking a lot of lives every year. The fate of women's rights in cultures such as these, are dependant upon how much the society begins to be educated. For example if the men in Malawi were better educated on the affects of AIDS, then the stigma surrounding the disease which exists in the west might come to exist in Malawi, and provide a step towards education, health, and women's rights for the country. ("Having AIDS is macho") Human rights discourse and gender in the context of AIDS The now familiar discourse of vulnerability, focusing on gender, resonates with a broader human rights approach to AIDS, as outlined in Mann and Tarantola (1996) and elaborated in position papers and pronouncements formulated under the auspices of UNAIDS. Accepting that an emphasis on human rights may in some cases obscure the specific way in which gender articulates with cultural understandings and conventions to restrict capabilities, and indeed to hinder recognition of inequalities on the basis of gender, a human rights approach still has particular merit in revealing how a section of humanity—women, or poor women or women discriminated against by official legislation—can be systematically denied the possibility of attaining a ‘good life’ and hence of realizing their humanness. This position is explicitly outlined in guidelines included in the Human Rights and AIDS document issued in 1996 (UN, p1): Guideline 8 affirms the need for governments to promote a supportive and enabling environment for women alongside ‘children and other vulnerable groups’—by ‘addressing underlying prejudices and inequalities through community dialogue, specially designed social and health services and support to community groups’. It goes on to advocate the examination of how the impact of HIV/AIDS is affected by women’s role in the domestic and public spheres, by their sexual and reproductive rights, (Carolyn p4) In equality and AIDS in Africa Sexual agency in men and the constraints on women's sexual agency are embedded in gendered cultural norms. These include cultural norms that accept male infidelity and expect female monogamy. They also include the constraints placed on women and men by the value placed on procreation. Parenthood confers adult status on both women and men and confirms their femininity or masculinity. Childless people, especially women, may be heavily stigmatized and discriminated against. These long-standing cultural norms persist irrespective of socio-economic status. These norms result in both women and men practicing "serial and concurrent sexual partnerships" as a means of achieving "reproductive success" and thus social acceptance. More generally, women's reputation as a "proper and reproductive woman" must be secured if their status within the community is to be maintained. As a result of the powerful cultural values that attach to "womanhood," HIV risk is only one factor that women have to weigh when engaging in sexual behavior. Indeed, women are continually making trade-offs between HIV risk and their social status (derived from culture). Although men are also subject to cultural norms of parenthood and masculinity, this occurs within a social context that tends to affirm male power and expects men to dictate the terms of sexual encounters. In a wider sense, some cultural or customary practices that underpin patriarchal notions of gender and family also reinforce women's vulnerability. Women argue that polygamy places them under risk as it legitimizes multiple sexual relationships. A more common practice that affects a large number of women occurs when migrant workers, who have a customary wife at "home" in the rural areas, marry or cohabit with "urban wives." This enhances the vulnerability of both wives. Research has shown how payment of lobola or bridewealth, a common customary practice in South Africa, can be interpreted by men as a "licence" to own women's bodies, increasing the risk of both violence and HIV vulnerability. Transactional sex occurs in different types of sexual relationships. Studies among South African youth find that young women often receive gifts from primary dating partners (Wood & Jewkes p 12; Jewkes et al p733; Kaufman & Stavrou, p 10; MacPhail & Campbell, p1613). While these gifts are rarely the sole motivation for the relationship (Wood & Jewkes, p733; Kaufman & Stavrou, p 13; MacPhail & Campbell, 2001), they do provide an incentive for young women to both have sex (Jewkes et al.p735; Kaufman & Stavrou, 2002) and eschew condom use (Kaufman & Stavrou, p 14; MacPhail & Campbell, 2001). Transactional sex also occurs with non-primary partners. In South Africa, a ‘‘roll-on’’ (Sotho: nyatsi; isiZulu: makwapheni) is a secret sexual partnership which is by definition concurrent with, and hidden from, a primary relationship (Jewkes, Nduna, Jama, Dunkle, & Levin, p 735). A roll-on may be a older man who provides financial resources (a sugar daddy) (Hunter, p99), the father of one or more of a woman’s children with whom she continues having sex to secure financial support (Jewkes, et al p13) or any other man who provides some form of ongoing emotional and/or financial support. The other important category of non-primary partners are men a woman has sex with only once. Sometimes a woman has sex in the hope of establishing an on-going relationship that never materializes, but ‘‘once-off’’ sex may also be a ‘‘thank you’’ for drinks bought in a she been (township bar) (Wojcicki & Malala, 2001), a free lift in a car or truck (Kaufman & Stavrou, p735), or a bed for the night (Jewkes et al., p 14; Wojcicki & Malala, p 99). Neither type of non-primary partnership is necessarily transactional, but such partnerships are frequently motivated by material or financial considerations. Several authors have noted associations between transactional sex and gender-based violence. Women who have experienced some forms of gender-based violence, particularly child sexual assault, have been found to be more likely to subsequently trade sex for money or drugs (Beadnell, Baker, Morrison, & Knox, p670;, Stiffman, Dore, & Earls, p 233; Gilbert, El-Bassel, Schilling, Wada, & Bennet, p261; James & Meyerding, p1381; Kalichman, Williams, Cherry, Belcher, & Nachimson, ; Mullings, Marquart, & Brewer, p 371; Zierler et al., p572). On the other hand, trading sex has been found to be associated with increased risk of rape and physical violence from clients or from men who anticipated that their financial outlay would be reciprocated by sex (Nyanzi et al., p 83). It is important, therefore, to consider transactional sex within the context of both gender-based economic disparities and the high prevalence of violence in sexual relationships. These patterns of cultural and sexual inequality are frequently imposed by violence, the majority of extreme expression of the power inequity between women and men. Studies in South Africa have found violence in relationships to be so widespread that women and men accept coercive as well as even aggressive sex as "normal." For example, research in Gauteng (a small and densely populated province with large metropolitan areas) it is found through research that more than a quarter of women (27 percent) and almost a third of men (31 percent) arranged that forcing somebody you are acquainted with to have sex with you is not at all thought as sexual violence. Studies in other parts of South Africa have also revealed high levels of violent and coercive male behavior. There are several explanations for the high levels of male violence in South Africa. Most of them trace the origins of violence to colonial and apartheid policies that shaped a racially unequal society and damaged the social fabric of all communities, but where the heaviest burden was felt in African communities. Research has looked at the impact of poverty, unemployment, and political transition on men and violence. Growing attention is being paid to the construction of masculinities in these socio-economic contexts and to the emergence of the various "culturally prescribed gender scripts" that legitimate sexual violence against women today. Although it is clear that there are diverse forms of femininity and masculinity in South Africa, there is probably broad agreement that cultural norms and values about women, men, and sexuality are implicated in, and reflect, gendered power relations that deny women autonomy and equality in the private sphere and often render them intensely vulnerable to violence and to HIV infection. As such, these need to be challenged, subverted, and transformed. Gender inequality is one of the root causes of the spread of HIV infection. Experience across Africa has shown how gender inequality also shapes the impact of HIV/AIDS on the individual, family, and community, as well as on social norms and attitudes. In each context, women's social and economic vulnerability is increased. Women are particularly vulnerable in the family for several reasons. First, if they reveal their HIV position or turn out to be ill, their relationship may perhaps break up, parting them devoid of access to the resources provided through their male partner. Second, if the husband falls ill before the wife, then in that condition, women do not do their household resources to care for the male, frequently at the cost of their personal income-generating tricks, food, school fees, as well as so on. Third, once the spouse dies, a lot of women source of revenue in customary communities have no self-governing lawful fight to inheritance. Widows, who are recognized or alleged of being HIV positive, may be deserted by their husband's family and will find it hard to remarry and therefore to gain access to resources throughout another man. A lot of women are pushed more down the socio-economic ladder into an even more fragile economic survival such as selling food or beer or engaging in sex work. This deepens their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. There is growing evidence in South Africa that HIV/AIDS deepens the stigmatization of women. They are blamed for AIDS and are portrayed as vectors of the epidemic that contaminate their partners and their children. This is reflected in colloquial labels given to the disease. In Kwazulu-Natal, where the highest provincial prevalence is found, AIDS is referred to as a "woman's disease" or a "prostitute's disease." HIV infection in women gives rise to sexual stereotypes where women are known as "promiscuous" as well as morally undeserving. It also reinforces the cultural codes that sustain these stereotypes. These may be used to justify violence against women. Disclosing their HIV status has direct consequences for women, some of whom have been abused, abandoned, and even killed. There is also evidence of cultural practices being harnessed (and distorted) to control women's sexuality in the context of HIV/AIDS. The recent resurgence of "virginity tests” among Zulu communities in Kwazulu-Natal has been interpreted as an attempt to reinforce conservative sexual norms and blame women (who are seen as "sexually out of control") for HIV/AIDS. It also draws attention away from the role of men in spreading HIV. As well as in a lethal picture of the Madonna/whore dualism, a cultural superstition that sex with a virgin cures HIV is said to have directly increased incidences of rape of girls. Hence, gendered cultural norms around HIV/AIDS portray women as both cause (sexual promiscuity) and salvation (virginal purity). In both instances, women's subordination is increased. It is clear that the particular vulnerability of women is related to multiple, intersecting levels of inequality. The connection of poverty and economic discrimination with gendered sexual as well as cultural norms, imposed by gender violence, make clear the constraints on women's incapability to discuss sexual relations. Gender inequalities mean that if the personal, social, cultural, and economic costs of avoiding risk are too high, women possibly will go on to take risks by means of their health and lives. For women, risk-avoiding behavior is costly, and these costs often override other considerations. This potent mix of inequalities can ferment powerlessness in the face of HIV/AIDS. In the words of one rural South African woman: "There is nothing I can do: just believe in God.) At the same time, the crisis of AIDS has elicited creative responses that seek to assert agency in the face of limited choices. HIV/AIDS can also deepen gender inequalities in a material and a social sense. Women may not only slip further down the socio-economic ladder when infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, they also become subject to greater stigmatization and control. HIV/AIDS thus reinforces old inequalities and introduces a new set of direct costs for women as a result of these inequalities. These complex linkages between HIV/AIDS and gender inequality (and between different levels of gender inequality) mean that responses to the epidemic need to go well beyond health or science--affordable treatment and drugs, an effective vaccine, and prevention methods--and must embrace wider political, economic, and cultural issues. Most importantly, these linkages suggest that South Africa's ability and capacity to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic is dependent upon its ability to achieve gender equality at all levels. Viewing gender equality through the lens of HIV/AIDS, however, reminds us of the importance of confronting the cultural norms and values in which the gender identities that render women intensely vulnerable to HIV infection (and violence) in the family and community are being constructed, reinforced, and reinvented. This means that the struggle for gender equality, which has largely taken place in the public domain of the state, needs to place a new emphasis on the role of the private in subordinating women. This may represent a substantial shift in the politics and activities of gender activists and the women's movement in South Africa thus far, and it generates a wider understanding of the public sphere in our democracy. There are two other theories which may be termed social and materialist in their approach to the epidemic, also. The first is a theory which has not been well researched or documented extensively, which we may call the truck transport theory. This theory argues that truckers, frequenting prostitutes on their various routes across Africa (particularly while using the trans-Africa highway) have spread the HIV-I virus from community to community, across the continent from Mombasa in Kenya on the West coast to Lusaka, Zaire on the East A differing cultural pattern with regard to reproduction and sexuality between the developed world and Africa is used by Caldwell et al. to explain the AIDS epidemic in Africa. These authors argue that the African cultural system with regard to these matters is distinct and internally coherent as opposed to a Eurasian system in the developed world, consisting of distinctly different values and practices concerning sexuality and reproduction. (Charles 1996) In Zambia recognition of the gendered nature of risk from HIV and of the need To attend to the physiological, social and economic aspects of vulnerability experienced by women has been noted in documentation of the country’s National AIDS/STD/TB and Leprosy Programme since the mid-1990s. The Programme’s Strategic Plan 1994–1998 emphasized women’s social and economic dependence on men, social acceptance of men having multiple partners and demand for sexual favors by those in positions of influence as among factors putting women at risk. A Ministry of Health Publication in 1997 elaborated on both physiological and social factors of concern. Women, it noted, were more vulnerable to STDs but sought medical treatment for them less often and experienced probabilities of infection from unprotected sexual intercourse two to four times greater than for men, given the larger surface areas exposed to contact. Emphasis was also placed on the socialization of females to be submissive to males and to please their sexual partners at the expense of their own pleasure, suggesting that ‘women are taught to never refuse having sex with their husbands, regardless of the number of partners he may have or his non-willingness to use condoms, even if he is suspected of having HIV or another STD’. Among women in African countries with high HIV prevalence, it is those in their 20s and 30s who are most likely to be infected with the HIV virus and dying. An early hospital-based study in Zambia posited peak prevalence between the ages of 20 to 25 years (Melbye, p1113). Subsequent official reports, whether based on reported cases of AIDS and AIDS Related Complex (ARC) or survey data, give the peak age for women as a range from 20 to 29 years (in contrast to 30 to 39 years for males) (Ministry of Health, p1; NASTLP, p3). In 1994 rates of prevalence based on surveys of attendees at ante-natal clinics across the country were about 33% for women between the ages of 20 and 29 in urban areas and 16% for those in rural areas, as against 28% in urban and 13% in rural areas for those aged 30 to 34. Rates for those in the older age range of 40 to 44, though far from negligible at 10.4% for urban and 6.7% for rural areas, were considerably lower. (Fylkesnes et al, p339). Because they are derived from surveys of pregnant women, such survey data provide relatively little information on older women. Those cases of AIDS or ARC which are officially reported are acknowledged to be far lower than actual cases and incorporate their own biases, not least the slippage associated with diagnoses of ARC. However, on the basis of this alternative data source, about 10% of cases reported in Zambia from the beginning of the epidemic up to the end of July 1997 were of women aged 40 and above and just 2% were of women aged 50 and over. In contrast about 9% of reported female cases of AIDS or ARC were of those aged 15 to 19 (NASTLP, p3). Prevalence rates vary from place to place but, according to data from the 1994 surveys, were over 20% among women aged 15 to 19 in some urban sites (NASTLP, p1), exacting thereby a heavy toll. And although data on incidence of HIV across age groups are scarcer than prevalence data, it has been suggested that the majority of new infections are among the 15 to 19 age group (Fylkesnes, p4). Conclusion AIDS is a horrible disease which has plagued Africa, with limited resources; it may be trapped for an even longer ride ahead. Work cited Beadnell, B., Baker, S. A., Morrison, D. M., & Knox, K. HIV/STD risk factors for women with violent male partners. 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