Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New Vision (Kampala) - December 11, 2006
Elvina Nawaguna
By the way responsibilities and privileges are distributed in the home, many Ugandan girls are raised with the mentality that the males around are more important than them. When the family runs short of money for school fees, the girls are the first to be dropped out of school while the boys continue.
"Girls are thus socialised to view men as their legitimate providers who they must depend on for economic and social sustenance at whatever level they are whether in educated and self sustaining or not," said Milly Katana of International HIV/AIDS Alliance. She was making a presentation at a public debate on Young Women's Vulnerability to Domestic Violence and HIV/AIDS organised by Centre for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP) at Kampala International University on Friday November 24.
Ugandan girls are also trained by their traditional sex counsellors (sengas) to be sexually submissive and to serve the man's sexual needs regardless of her circumstances. Unlike most women, men have the economic and social power to decide how, when and where to have sex. "Young women therefore cannot freely choose safer sexual practices or refuse unsafe sexual activities," said Katana.
Katana added that some women are in danger of being beaten or thrown out of their homes if they reveal that they are HIV positive and so they end up hiding that information. Because of this, she may infect and reinfect her spouse and risk mother-to- child transmission, thereby transferring the virus to another generation. Many women are also beaten up for suggesting an HIV test to their partners.
There are also cases where a man knows that he is HIV positive, but cannot tell his wife or initiate condom use as that may give away the fact that he has been having an extramarital affair. The couple continues to have unprotected sex and transmission and reinfection occurs.
Girls and women are expected to be chaste and it is an abomination for a woman to commit adultery. Men on the other hand are free to explore their sexuality and it is almost acceptable for them to have multiple sexual partners. Because she is economically dependent on him, she cannot insist on protected sex even when she knows the risk she is exposed to. Resisting sex with her promiscuous husband may earn her a beating or expulsion from the house.
According to Katana, domestic violence is rooted in the power inequalities between women and men that are entrenched in the social belief systems, perceptions, attitudes about women and men and their roles in the family. It is a behavioural problem that has been learnt through socialisation and this determines who has what power and authority in intimate relationships. Usually the one with more power is often the perpetrator of violence. How can you bite the hand that feeds you?
Uganda Law Reform Commission defines domestic violence as "any specific act or threat to cause physical, sexual and psychological or economic abuse within the context of a previous or existing domestic relationship. It can be physical, sexual, psychological, or economic. Sexually, it includes denial of sex by partner, forced intercourse, adultery as well as use of any degrading sexual act or object on the partner.
Research world over shows a strong link between HIV/AIDS and domestic violence. This explains the disproportionate rate of HIV infection between women and men in Sub-Saharan Africa and Uganda in particular. A study done in Rakai district for example concluded that relationships characterised by violence are very vulnerable to HIV infection and many succumb to the disease in the long run.
According to UNAIDS 2006 report, there are about 24.5 million people living with HIV in Africa, 57% of whom are women. The AIDS Information Centre (AIC) 2006 Status report says that the HIV prevalence rate in Uganda varies between males (5.2%) and females (7.3). Out of a million people living with HIV/AIDS (Ages 15-49), 520,000 are women; more than half of the number. According to the AIC report, young people of ages 15 to 40 are getting more infected and yet most of these are either married or in stable relationships. Young women however stand a higher risk of HIV/AIDS infection than their male counterparts.
Under the global theme "16 years of 16 days' Uganda commemorates the International Day against Domestic Violence, World AIDS Day, and, International Human Rights days on 25th November, 1st 6th and 10th December respectively. The
Regional theme for the Horn, East and Southern Africa is "Young Women's Vulnerability to Violence and HIV/AIDS".
While debating this theme, many young people, both male and female, mostly University students called for advocacy and laws to protect women from domestic violence and punish offenders. It must however be remembered that many women are afraid to report cases of domestic violence for fear of their breadwinner being locked away in jail. There have been cases where battered women plead for their violent husbands to be released because they had no source of income.
According to Katana, because of the strong relationship between HIV/AIDS and domestic violence, the ABC strategy of HIV prevention has failed to protect especially young women. The call is not just to women to stand up against domestic violence. The relationship between men and women is a symbiotic one and so the call is to both women and men to protect their spouses, neighbours and friends from domestic violence and HIV/AIDS infection in turn.
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