II.2.2 MARRIAGE
Often girls are under pressure to prove their fertility and
acquire status within the family. According to Clack (2002), HIV/AIDS in
sub-Saharan Africa reaffirms that for many women, marriage equates the end of
condom use and the increase in sexual activity26. Married girls are
bound to have more frequent sexual activity than their unmarried counterparts
and are less likely to have the power to be able to control the women and how
of sex27. Marriage, which greatly increases women's sexual exposure,
has in itself dramatic rise in the frequency of unprotected sex after marriage
is driven by the implications of infidelity or distrust associated with certain
forms of contraception such as condom, a strong desire to become pregnant, and
imbalance in gender power relations28. Consequently, parents are
unable to talk to their daughters before their marriages about sexual matters
and sexual relationships.
This lack of knowledge and informed discussion has also led to
the spread of HIV29. Women have increased inability to negotiate
safer sex. In spite of having knowledge of their extra marital sexual
interactions, women are often unable to protect themselves due to lack of power
within relationships created by culture, economic and emotional dependence.
II.2.3 POLYGAMY
The polygamy was considered by some people as cultural
practice value, the men considered the polygamy as something compulsory in
society. In general the polygamy is known in rural areas, poor areas where
economy, social and cultural level are modesty30.The traditional
practice of polygamy, which is legally sanctioned in some parts of the world,
allows husband to have more than one wife. Polygamy operates to create
concurrent sexual networks within marriage between multiple wives and their
husband, and in addition to any extra marital sexual contacts the spouse may
have.
26
www.eenet.org
27
www.ncbi.nlm.nlh.gov
28
www.icaso.org
29
www.eenet.org
30 Sami tchak.1999
Direct sexual transmission of HIV can occur in these
concurrent sexual networks where the virus is introduced through the spouses'
extra-marital sexual contacts or where a wife who is already HIV positive
enters the polygamy union31. The place of women in society increases
the risk oh HIV transmission by undermining women's ability to negotiate condom
use, to insist on partner fidelity becomes further complicated in polygamous
households given that multiple wives are often reliant on one husband for
material survival. The economic hardship, lack of knowledge and lack of
emotional attention associated with polygamy can lead to engage in extramarital
sexual relationships.
II.2.4 EARLY MARRIAGE
Early marriage refers to any form of marriage that takes place
before a child has reached 18 years32.The majority of sexual active
girls aged 15-19 in developing countries are married. Early marriage severely
increases young girls' vulnerability to HIV as they are most likely to be
forced into having sexual intercourse with their (usually much older) husband
young girls have softer vaginal membranes which are more prone to tear,
especially on coercion, making them susceptible to HIV
infection. Older husbands are more likely to be sexually experienced and HIV
infected.33
Child marriage is a violation of human rights as it violates
the right to freedom and growth of children, example: a testimony of a girl: I
hate early marriage. I was married at an early age and my in-law forced me to
sleep with my husband and he made me suffer all night. After that, whenever day
becomes night, I get worried thinking that it will be like that .that is what I
hate most» -an 11 year-old girl from Amhara, Ethiopia, married at age 5;
first had sex at age 9. Gender inequality is both a cause and a consequence of
child marriage34.
31 UNAIDS.2005
32
www.eenet.org
33 .UNAIDS.2005.P10
34
www.icaso.org
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