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Women and stigma
The impact of HIV/AIDS on women is particularly
acute. In many developing countries, women are often economically,
culturally and socially disadvantaged and lack equal access to
treatment, financial support and education. In a number of
societies, women are mistakenly perceived as the main transmitters
of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Together with traditional
beliefs about sex, blood and the transmission of other diseases,
these beliefs provide a basis for the further stigma of women within
the context of HIV and AIDS
HIV - positive women are treated very differently
from men in many developing countries. Men are likely to be
'excused' for their behaviour that resulted in their infection,
whereas women are not.
"My mother-in-law tells everybody, 'Because of her,
my son got this disease. My son is a simple as good as gold-but she
brought him this disease".
In India, for example, the husbands who infected
them may abandon women living with HIV or AIDS. Rejection by wider
family members is also common. In some African countries, women,
whose husbands have died from AIDS-related infections, have been
blamed for their deaths. |
