By Dora Byamukama

THE HIV/AIDS pandemic disproportionately affects African women. Women’s peak infection rates occur at earlier ages than men. In sub-Saharan Africa close to 60% of adults living with HIV are women.

UNAIDS estimates that in countries with generalised epidemics, approximately 80% of women between the ages of 15 and 24 lack “sufficient knowledge” about HIV/AIDS.

The World AIDS Day theme for 2010 is "Universal access and human rights". The day is important for reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done. As we close the year, the story carried in the New Vision of November 29, entitled “Jilted schoolgirl kills self” shocked the nation. It is not the first story we have heard about such incidents but the fact that this continues to happen poses serious questions, especially in this era where there is access to information through the media and many role models whom young people can emulate.

This permanent solution to a temporary challenge makes me wonder whether all the work that has been put into increasing women’s potential and self-esteem has been in vain. The fact that the 17-year-old Namubiru lived in Kawempe Division and went to school in Mpigi District means she had access to more information than a person her age living in a remote rural area. How can we ensure that love hysteria does not claim more lives of the youth?

The commemoration of World AIDS Day on December 1 compels us to evaluate what has been done so far to forestall its destruction. Since the early late 80s, the AIDS epidemic has dramatically affected the world, with the hardest hit region being Africa, the cradle of mankind. Uganda has, to a large extent, initiated a number of successful AIDS control and prevention programmes but current statics seem to be showing a change of tide.

Women continue to be at particular risk of exposure to HIV/AIDS. The reasons why women are hardest hit by HIV/AIDS are mixed and hinge on economic challenges, social attitudes, and the need for sustained political intervention.

Economic challenges stem from limited opportunities. For example the Makerere Female Scholarship Initiative that supports girls from disadvantaged backgrounds has only seen 600 girls graduate. It was clear that most of the applicants could not be availed with an opportunity to access higher education.

One beneficiary narrated that she would have already been married if she had not got the scholarship. Much as there is nothing wrong with getting married, the fact is that women’s economic dependence on men deprives them of the ability to refuse sexual practices that expose them to AIDS. And therefore when women get married at a point when they are not in a position to earn a living, they are doomed to economic dependence and this in most cases perpetuates a cycle of marrying off their daughters at an early age too.

Indeed, women’s dependence on men also stems from cultural and religious beliefs that treat women as inferior to men. These cultural and religious beliefs lead to widespread practices like wife inheritance, which increase women’s likelihood of contracting HIV/AIDs. There is therefore urgent need to review and restate cultural and religious principles so that they take into account prevailing circumstances.

For example, it is not long ago, when women in some cultures were refused to eat chicken and eggs. On other hand some laws like those which prefer males over females on issues such as inheritance also perpetuate women’s vulnerability. As recently as 2007, we had laws in our statutes which did not consider it as criminal when a married man had sex with an unmarried woman. I am glad to report that both these laws that discriminate against women were declared void and unconstitutional.

Laws apart, there is need for sex education both informally and formally. Most Africans consider it a taboo to discuss issues of sex, but this is currently inevitable because if parents don’t discuss these issues, children will learn about sex experimentation from the media.

Learning about sex through these avenues may have severe consequences and limitations because the message may not spell out consequences of engagement in sex. Sex education should also explain the biological make up of the human body, because one particular reason why women are hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic is because of their biological make-up.

Political intervention to save women and the human race from extinction is urgently sought in several ways these include supporting women’s economic security, ensuring that laws, customs and religions are interpreted and practiced in a manner that takes into account women’s vulnerability.

Political intervention could also be in form of sustaining awareness programmes that promote human rights and sex education through Community Development Centres, cultural and religious institutions where information and counselling can be provided. Introduction of innovations like the female condom, microbicides and a specific law on HIV/AIDS can only be effective if the economic, social and political dimensions are also addressed.

The Government has a duty to address women’s challenges in respect to HIV/AIDS pandemic because women are essential to the wellbeing of their families and the economy and because their right to live a healthy and productive life is a basic human right.