Forced sex fuelling HIV epidemic
Young South African women are being coerced by their partners into having sex, a trend that renders girls more vulnerable to infection with HIV.
This is one of the alarming findings of the largest ever survey of South African youth examining sexual behaviour and HIV prevalence. The study, by the University of theWitwatersrand’s Reproductive Health Research Unit (RHRU) and commissioned by loveLife, found that among the 10 percent of South African youth who are HIV positive, 77 percent are women.
Nearly one in four women aged between 20 and 24 is HIV positive compared to one in 14 men of the same age. The survey involved a national representative sample of 11 904 young people aged between 15 and 24.
The study also found that almost one third of sexually experienced women (31%) reported that they did not want to have their first sexual encounter and that they had been coerced into having sex.
Among young people who reported ever having sex, 83 percent of young men said they really wanted to have sex the first time, whereas only 30 percent of young women reported the same.
The survey found that on average, women were having sex with men four years older. This exposed young women to greater risk of HIV infection as well as making it difficult for them to refuse unwanted sex or negotiate condom use.
Commenting on these findings, Lisa Vetten, Gender Co-ordinator at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, said poverty often drives young women into relationships with older men.
‘Very often in this country being with a man is a form of survival. Older men are not the ticket to a better life,’ Vetten said.
The study also found that six percent of all sexually active youth had been physically forced to have sex.
‘This is not a new phenomenon. It has been there for a long time but people have just not paid any attention to it. The seriousness of the whole situation is being sharply underscored by the HIV epidemic,’ said Vetten.
She expressed concern that young women are being forced into having sex with their boyfriends and that this is still not regarded as rape.
‘Many young men and women see this as perfectly normal,’ she said.
There was a need to tackle this misconception and challenge young men’s sense of entitlement.
‘They cannot be allowed to think that girls are just here for them to have sex with,’ she warned.
Another worrying trend to emerge in the RHRU study is that sexually active young women reported having more sex than their male counterparts a situation that places women at greater risk of exposure to infection.
According to loveLife CEO, Dr David Harrison, one of the key factors driving this gender disparity is the fact that women are exposed to a greater degree of coercion. He said young people were immersed in a society that has little tolerance for women’s sexual rights and would not change their behaviour while these prevailing norms are still endorsed by older people.
‘It will be very difficult to change as long as South African males think that sex can be coerced whenever they want it, and while there are teachers who get involved with young girls or husbands and fathers who use physical violence in their homes,’ said Harrison. ‘Health-e News Service.
The full survey may be found here.
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