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HIV/AIDS and Women Abuse

© Moira Richards

It is easier for an HIV positive man to pass the virus onto a woman during sexual intercourse than it is for an infected woman to pass it onto a man. This is due to various biological factors.  Besides this biological susceptibility, there are a number of social and cultural factors that make it even more difficult for women to escape the deadly virus. Ten factors are listed below, but maybe you'll come up with some more .

1. Male Power - Usually it is the man who initiates sexual encounters in a relationship. The woman might get to say Yes or No, but rarely does she feel empowered to negotiate safe sexual practice. Not many a woman is able to sit her prospective lover down and negotiate with him the use of condoms, a monogamous relationship, or HIV screening before they first climb into bed together.
2. Protective Devices - A female condom is one that a woman can wear to protect herself from sexually transmitted diseases. Unfortunately, they are neither as cheap nor as readily available as male condoms. There is also relatively little information disseminated to women to publicise the existence and the life-saving capabilities of female condoms, or of the other protective measures that might reduce their risks of infection.
3. Parental Power - Many cultures expect unmarried girls to be ignorant of sexual matters, and often allow a girl's parents to decide whom she must marry. This means that these young girls don't know about the HIV/AIDS risks that their husbands may bring to them. They are also unable to choose for themselves a mate that they can trust not to infect them.
4. Slavery - Sometimes girls are sold by their families into sexual slavery. They must then have sex with whoever their 'owner' orders them to have sex with. No chance here for them to insist on safe sexual practice.
5. Economic - Many, many women have to turn to prostitution so that they can earn money to eat. Their poverty is so dire that they are hardly in a position to insist that their clients use a condom. If they do, they are likely to lose the client to a competitor. Sometimes a client will offer to pay a prostitute more for unprotected sex and so the women are enticed by money to take life-threatening risks.

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