“Women in South Africa are not successfully talking about protection with men‚ if at all.”
According to Right to Care’s Precious Robinson‚ who said that despite SA’s “extensive resources‚ a well-developed facility infrastructure‚ excellent policies and strong leadership around HIV and Aids prevention…we are still facing age-old issues of power‚ tradition and expected behaviour around sex”.
These‚ she said‚ “are thwarting the progress that we are making in combating HIV”.
Right to Care’s Edward Sibanda said: “Starting the condom conversation requires a woman to assert dominance around the sexual act which is not her traditional role. We have found that this imposes unfamiliar and uncomfortable behaviour on both the woman and the man.”
Among the issues preventing women insisting on using a condom are‚ Sibanda said:
- - They want to please their partner;
- - They want to trust him;
- - They fear rejection and even harm; and
- - Women fear that if they insist‚ the man will consider her promiscuous or as lacking in respect for religious and traditional or cultural practices.
“According to the first South African national youth risk-behaviour survey‚ only 40% of male and 31% of female adolescents always use a condom. There is a tendency for women to use condoms less consistently than men‚” said Sibanda.
Robinson added: “Condoms raise uncomfortable issues about trust and deceit. This relates especially to married men who are having sex with young girls in return for gifts and favours and then going home to have sex with their wives.
“The wife is unlikely to insist on a condom in case he thinks she doesn’t trust him‚ while he won’t insist on a condom because it will imply he has been unfaithful.
“We still have a culture in which women want to respect men to the extent that they don’t question them. This is not about sex itself‚ but about the power in the relationships between men and women.” – TMG Digital
