Violence Against Women and HIV&AIDS Are Linked--Both Pandemics Are the Greatest Danger to Women Worldwide

There is a link between HIV/AIDS and violence against women and girls. Little has been done so far to bring both pandemics together and explore the connection further and create new policies to combat the spread of both. Only recently have HIV/AIDS activists and the activists from the movement against violence against women and girls come together and joined forces.

In 2007, Women Won't Wait-End HIV and Violence Against Women Now international campaign focused on the link between the two pandemics and collected the necessary data highlighting that violence against women is a driver of HIV/AIDS. In 2009, ActionAid and UNIFEM addressed the linkages between both pandemics in their report Together We Must.

According to the latter report, HIV/AIDS and violence against women go hand in hand. Gender inequality and unequal power relations are playing a role. Traditional norms of masculinity encourage violence as a means of proving manhood or prompt men to engage in unprotected sex. Studies in Botswana and Swaziland reveal that individuals with gender discriminatory attitudes engage more often in unsafe sex. Conversely, sexual abuse, violence and threat of violence limit women's and girls' ability to negotiate safer sex.

While there are often the men's unsafe behavior and unprotected sex that put the women at HIV risk, the women's HIV-positive status in turn triggers blame and violence by a woman's partner, family and community. HIV-positive women experience violence at higher rates than other women. They are being expelled from their households and communities, often prosecuted and they are suffering violent reprisals or even death.

Women's subordinate status is weakening their sexual independence and limiting educational opportunities that diminish women's vulnerabilities to violence and HIV. In many cultures, gender inequalities are accepted and considered normal.

Race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, religion can affect women's vulnerability to violence and HIV/AIDS. Marginalized groups, young women, ethnic and racial minorities, migrant workers, disabled women and sex workers are especially vulnerable. Their abilities to access services can also be limited.

In Brazil, research shows that black and mulatto women experience higher rates of HIV than white women, in spite of the fact that Brazil has become internationally recognized with its implementation of an HIV/AIDS model plan that addressed the pandemic. In the United States, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African American and Latin American women represent 81 percent of women living with HIV, even though they represent only 25 percent of female population.

Communities play a large role, both in perpetuating and preventing violence and HIV/AIDS. How to reconcile traditional values with women's rights remains a challenge. Engaging men and boys into struggle against violence against women is crucial.

South African Sonke Gender Justice program has engaged men and boys in South Africa, Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Uganda in the fight against violence against women and HIV/AIDS. Surveys show that a majority of men changes their opinion about their right to beat their partners or to demand sex after the Sonke workshop.

In Nepal, where there are 118 laws that discriminate against women and girls, Equal Access is addressing linkage between violence against women and HIV/AIDS through radio programming. Audio diaries, songs, interviews and monologues are bringing to life experiences of HIV-positive women and survivors of violence. The programming is helping reduce HIV-related stigma and encourage women to fight for their rights.

In India, MILANA, a support group of women living with HIV/AIDS and their families, offers a safe environment and peer counseling.

In Nigeria, Girls Power Initiative conducts sex education in schools; in Kenya, the Gender Violence Recovery Center offers free health care, counseling and testing for survivors of sexual assault; in Argentine hospitals, the protocol addressing the linkages between HIV/AIDS and violence was introduced offering comprehensive health care, counseling and legal services to the survivors; and in Nigeria, public tribunals on HIV/AIDS, violence, sexual and reproductive rights are putting a human face on both pandemics thus offering survivors support.

Sadly, despite progress in a lot of countries, too many communities have yet to acknowledge the link between HIV/AIDS and violence against women and girls and the gender and discrimination issues that are driving them.

Sources: Together We Must, publication co-published by UNIFEM and ActionAid in 2009,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention