SWAZILAND: Critics slam findings on female sexual activity

Mbabane, 28 August 2006 (PlusNews) - Swazi women have more sexual partners than men, a new study has found, but critics of the controversial report say this is driven by poverty.

Sixty percent of sexually active women said they had had at least two sexual partners in the past three months - 18 percent higher than men.

Although the survey tested the assumption that male sexual behaviour was the primary cause for Swaziland having the world's highest rate of HIV/AIDS infections, it did not absolve men, HIV/AIDS advocacy groups said in reaction to the report.

About 33 percent of Swaziland's sexually active adults are HIV positive, according to this year's UNAids report.

The survey, which studied several hundred sexually active men, women and teenagers, was commissioned by World Vision, a developmental and humanitarian assistance advocacy group, in the impoverished southern Shiselweni region, where young women engaged in sex with multiple partners out of economic need. "They start dating as early as eleven years [old], and they can date even more than four people at a time," said one participant.

Hannie Dlamini, who heads the AIDS support group, Deeply Concerned People Against HIV/AIDS, said the report was factually inaccurate. "What I know is that here in Swaziland, it is the men who propose to the women. The men are the predators, not women," he told IRIN.

Girls engaged in sex for money and the glamour that adult sexual relations bestowed on them, rather than love and marriage. "These young women are particularly vulnerable to unsafe sexual activities within transactional sexual relationships due to their weaker bargaining position relative to their male partners," the study commented.

HIV/AIDS activist Chris Mavuso said, "It's no longer black and white - sexually out of control Swazi men infecting powerless wives or rape victims - the study shows there is a grey area when it comes to behaviour, and blame enough to spread around."

World Vision suggested that the fight against HIV/AIDS stay focused on male sexual behaviour, because older men were usually the affluent lovers of younger girls. "Men must be agents of change in a culture where women do not have a voice."

However, this was unlikely to occur until Swazis were more open about sexuality. The report recommended that parents receive guidance on how to talk to their children about sensitive issues such as sex, sexuality and gender.

One young female member of a focus group commented, "It is not easy to talk about sexuality and HIV with our parents, especially because we are young and they do not expect us to engage in sex."

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[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]