ウガンダ：女性に権限もない中で禁欲は現実に合わない - IPS

女性に権限もない中で禁欲は現実に合わない 2006/05/23
【カンパラIPS＝エヴェリン・キアピ・マツァムラ、５月１５日】

　ウガンダでは何万人もの学生が、HIV/AIDSの蔓延を防止する手立てとして禁欲を推進するクラブ「True Love Waits」に入会している。入会者は、結婚までの純潔を誓う。

　クラブは、ウガンダの首都カンパラ市内およびその周辺の学校で、宗教NGO「家族生活ネットワーク」により始められたものである。家族を通じてウガンダ社会の道徳心の向上を目指すこの団体のStephen Langa事務局長によれば、１年間にカンパラ市内だけで中等学校の学生（１３～２０歳）およそ１万３，０００人が入会したという。

　ウガンダは、１９８０年代、９０年代を通じてHIV/AIDS感染率が世界でもっとも高い国のひとつであったが、「ABC（禁欲、信仰、コンドームの頭文字をとったもの）」戦略が成果を上げて、９０年代はじめに２０％以上を記録したHIV感染率が現在では５％に減少した。コンドームの使用を推進する安全なセックス政策を政府が積極的に支援した結果だと専門家は評価する。

　しかし昨年、コンドームのソーシャルマーケティング戦略が大幅に変更された。禁欲を重視し、コンドーム使用のメッセージは感染の危険性が高いグループに向けられるようになったのである。

　だが「ウガンダ女性ネットワーク（UWONET）」のコーディネーターSalome NakaweesiKimbugwe氏は「禁欲プログラムは、女性の性が男性によって支配されているウガンダの現実を考慮していない。女性は、性に関して決定権を持たず、セックスを拒否することもできず、性について語ることも許されていないのに、どうして禁欲できると言うのか」とIPSの取材に応えて語った。

　１３歳のときから夫への服従を教え込まれ、家父長制が徹底しているウガンダ社会の中で、貧困、文化、宗教を背景に少女たちは１８歳より前に結婚させられる。「男たちは欺き、妻をHIVウイルスにさらす。HIV感染は、結婚につきもののリスク。なにより心配なのは子どもたちだ」と３人の子どもの母Ida Nakabugo（２３）は嘆く。

　ウガンダの女性とHIV/AIDSの問題を報告する。
（原文へ・下）

翻訳/サマリー＝坪沼悦子（Diplomatt）／IPS Japan浅霧勝浩

IPS関連ヘッドラインサマリー：
信仰を基にする禁欲がコンドームに勝る？
溢れるばかりの信仰、しかしコンドーム対策は無し

(ＩＰＳJapan)

UGANDA:
Abstinence Clashes With Reality When Women Are Powerless
Evelyn Kiapi Matsamura

KAMPALA, May 15 (IPS) - Tens of thousands of Ugandan schoolchildren have enrolled in 'True Love Waits' clubs that promote sexual abstinence as the way to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Each student member has pledged "commitment to God, myself, my family, my country, my friends, my future mate and my future children to be sexually pure until the day I give myself only to my marriage partner in a convenient marriage relationship."

The clubs, at schools in and around the Ugandan capital, Kampala, were launched by Family Life Network: a local faith-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) that seeks to "raise the moral fibre of Ugandan society through the family". Those who take the vow are issued "abstinence commitment cards".

Executive director Stephen Langa says an estimated 13,000 secondary schoolchildren (aged 13-20) have signed up in Kampala alone in one year.

Uganda was among the world's HIV/AIDS hot spots in the 1980s and '90s. But it scripted a remarkable turnaround with a strategy called ABC -- or abstinence, be faithful or use a condom.

From over 20 percent at the start of the '90s, HIV prevalence has dropped to five percent today, which according to experts was the result of the government's bold support for a safe sex policy that promoted condom use.

However, the condom social marketing strategy changed dramatically last year -- emphasising sexual abstinence, with condom use messages being directed at high-risk groups.

"As a feminist, I strongly think the abstinence programme doesn't take into consideration the reality in the country, which is that women's sexuality is controlled by men," said Salome Nakaweesi Kimbugwe, coordinator of the Uganda Women's Network (UWONET).

"How will a woman abstain if she doesn't even control her body? (If) she doesn't decide when, where, how and with whom to have sex?" she asked.

"Women in Uganda have not yet been empowered to make decisions concerning their sexuality -- to be able to deny sex…Women here aren't allowed to talk about sex," Kimbugwe added, in an interview with IPS.

Cultural practices also reinforce patriarchy.

In central and eastern Uganda, it is mandatory that sengas (maternal aunts who teach teenagers sexual techniques) train girls as young as 13 to remain submissive at all times.

Women who were interviewed by IPS expressed their helplessness.

"Abstain from sex?" asked a surprised Ida Nakabugo, a 23-year-old resident of Mengo, one of the suburbs in Kampala. "How can I do that? My husband would beat me up and chase me out of the house."

Also a mother of three, she was of the firm belief that "all men cheat" in marriage, and expose their wives to the HI-virus.

"But what can you do? He is your husband. Those (HIV infections) are some of the risks we take in marriage. My greatest worry is for my children," she lamented.

Adams Ochaya, a third year student at Makerere University observed: "You cannot talk about abstinence when poverty is still around. People are poor, and a woman might not say no to sex if she thinks she can get something out of it."

Ochaya was referring to the phenomenon of "sugar daddies" that is relatively common in Uganda, where a young woman willingly has a long-term sexual relationship with an older man who gives her money and material goods in exchange.

Gender equity and women's empowerment is goal number three of the Millennium Development Goals. According to the latest UNDP 'Country Progress Report on MDGs' (2003), women are disadvantaged by domestic chores, early marriage and pregnancy.

Poverty, culture and religion dictate that Ugandan parents still marry off children before they turn 18.

"I think we should be providing women and girls more choice to make decisions that concern them. Unfortunately, abstinence doesn't enable women and girls to make decisions," says UWONET's Kimbugwe.

Last year, activists urged the government to enact the long pending Domestic Relations Bill (DRB) and the Sexual Offences Bill. The first addresses polygamy, bride price, cohabitation, marital rape, and female genital mutilation.

In June 2005, the New York-based Human Rights Watch also urged the Ugandan parliament to debate the DRB. Its provision on "marital rape in particular, is exactly the type of reform that anyone who cares about stopping HIV/AIDS and promoting women's rights should support," the report stated.

"Having languished in parliament for more than a decade, it is time for action on the DRB." (END/2006)