ZIMBABWE: An MDC senator recently said women should be made to shave their heads, lose weight and dress shabbily to reduce their attractiveness as part of measures to curb the spread of HIV

Record ID: 402402

  • Title: ZIMBABWE: An MDC senator recently said women should be made to shave their heads, lose weight and dress shabbily to reduce their attractiveness as part of measures to curb the spread of HIV
  • Date: 8th June 2012
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF COMPUTER SCREEN SHOWING WEBSITE SHOWING ARTICLE ON SENATOR MORGAN FEMAI
  • Embargoed: 23rd June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Zimbabwe
  • Country: Zimbabwe
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA80WF2M4AZQP9XY1JZ0TKNCODP
  • Story Text: It is not easy to live with HIV/AIDS anywhere in the world but after recent comments by Zimbabwean senators advising women to be "less attractive" to avoid the spread if the disease, HIV positive patients in this southern African nation find their lot particularly hard.
    Charles Kautare lives with his wife and daughter in a run-down house in Harare. The whole family is HIV positive and, while they have learnt to live with the disease, their daily lives are a constant struggle.
    Since 2009 Zimbabwe's economy has been recovering from a decade of decline, which saw unemployment rates of 80 percent and hyper-inflation that at its worst was doubling the prices every day.
    Kautare says that in the country's economic circumstance the cost of treating the disease made their family life much harder than it would have been if they were healthy.
    "I myself I am HIV positive and I am not shy about it, my wife here is also HIV positive, my child is also HIV positive, but life for us is very, very tough, because for us to manage to live our daily lives it means we have to have an economic activity of some sort to sustain ourselves but this has not been forthcoming," Kautare said.
    There is presently no cure for the disease but its progress can be controlled with a cocktail of antiretroviral drugs, which have to be taken every morning. Drugs are provided for Kautare family by an NGO at a cost of 3 US dollars per month, and the family also has to buy the high-calorie, nutritious food essential to sustain their health while undergoing treatment.
    Kautare believes the recent comments by members of parliament, advocating among others libido-reducing jabs for men and genital moisture drain for women, only adds to stigmatization and discrimination.
    "The issue of fighting HIV/AIDS needs a holistic approach, it does not need a person of reputable standing to go about saying derogatory statements and to such an extent that, to me it sounds more like stigma," he said.
    Remarks that outraged HIV/AIDS patients and activists in Zimbabwe and abroad were made by Morgan Femai, a senator for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), in a parliamentary session aimed at sensitizing parliamentarians about AIDS issues. It was organized by Zimbabwe Parliamentarians against HIV (Zipah) with assistance from the National Aids Council and the UN.
    Femai proposed 'that the government should come up with a law that compels women to have their heads clean-shaven like what the Apostolic sects do', as well as suggesting that women 'should not bath because that is what has caused all these problems (spread of HIV)'.
    He further stated that 'women have got more moisture in their organs as compared to men, so there is need to research how to deal with that moisture because it is conducive for bacteria breeding. "There should be a way to suck out that moisture," he said.
    The senator declined to respond to the Reuters correspondent's requests for a statement.
    These comments are not the first ones to outrage public opinion uttered by a Zimbabwean legislator. Sithembile Mlotshwa, an MDC senator from Matobo, recently said people should have sex once a month and that men should be injected with drugs that reduce their libido.
    Freddie Kachote, the director of Harare centre that counsels HIV/AIDS patients, said that despite Zimbabwe's progress on combating HIV/AIDS authorities and elites still have a lot to learn about the disease.
    "It clearly shows a serious disregard of the rights of people, first of all, the rights of people living with HIV, who are just people as everyone else, and it clearly shows lack of understanding HIV/AIDS issues, particularly for a person who is a legislator who is a lead person in a constituency, who is supposed to be advising people," he said.
    Reports indicate that fear of infection and mass social change have driven a huge decline in HIV rates in Zimbabwe in the last ten years, reducing the infection rate from 29 percent of the population in 1997 to 16 percent in 2007.
    Latest available data from 2009 indicate that over 14 percent of population, that is over 1.5 million people, are currently affected. Latest data from the United Nations (UN) show that an estimated 33.3 million people worldwide are infected with HIV and the majority of those live in sub-Saharan Africa.
    Zimbabwe's government has thus far been credited with a good attitude towards HIV/AIDS education and prevention, in particular when compared to the attitude of the presidents of the neighbouring Republic of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, who have consistently denied the link between the HIV virus and AIDS.
    However, activists believe that not enough is being done and the recent comments reveal how little legislators really care about HIV/AIDS epidemics in the country.
    "Politically, HIV/AIDS treatment is available in the country, but in reality, it's not the case, already we hear press reports that about 66,000 people are in urgent need of treatment, and the looming shortage of treatment in the months to come, there are still a lot of people who cannot access this treatment," said Tendai Westerhof, an HIV/AIDS activist.
    Prevention is considered the most effective way of combating the disease and its prevalence rates are driven down by safer sexual practices such as fewer partners and the use of condoms, according to the UN.
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