Poor, rural women bear the brunt of South Africa's HIV epidemic as they face sexual abuse and discrimination, rights body Amnesty International (AI) said yesterday, urging government action.
A new report said rural women were disproportionately affected by poverty and unemployment and continued to suffer subjugation at the hands of men -- increasing their risk of contracting AIDS.
With some 5.5 million out of 48 million South Africans believed to be HIV-positive, the victim profile has changed from gay, white males to poor women living in rural settings, the report said.
Women younger than 25 were up to four times more likely to be infected with HIV than men of the same age, 12 years after the country adopted a Constitution guaranteeing equal rights to all its citizens.
While the overall infection rate was leveling off in South Africa, it continued to grow among women.
"Rural South African women's lives are scarred by persistent violence in their families, homes and in under-policed, unsafe communities," said Michelle Kagari, deputy director of AI's Africa Program, in a statement.
"The co-existence of the epidemics of both HIV and violence against women has raised the costs of violence for South African women and girls -- both physically and psychologically," she said.
Many women interviewed for the AI study said they did not want to get tested for HIV for fear of a backlash from their partners or communities and that they risked abuse when trying to access treatment.
Long distances and high travel costs often prevented women from visiting hospitals and clinics and few were able to follow a healthy diet recommended for those on HIV medication.
"Lack of physical access to treatment centers is tantamount to a denial of access to health care services and the government must take more responsibility in ensuring this access," Kagari said.
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
EYEING A SOLUTION: In unusually critical remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump said he was ‘destroying Russia by not making a deal’ US President Donald Trump on Wednesday stepped up the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the war. Trump’s warning in a social media post came as the Republican seeks a quick solution to a grinding conflict that he had promised to end before even starting his second term. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
RSS