Source: Africa Review
Zimbabwean rights organisation have reacted angrily to a suggestion by a senator that women must shun bathing, have bald heads and dress shabbily to curb the spread of HIV.
Senator Morgan Femai of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party said the pandemic was being fuelled by men who were finding it difficult to resist attractive women.
“What I propose is that the government should come up with a law that compels women to have their heads clean shaven like what the apostolic sects do,” he told a parliamentary HIV awareness workshop recently.
“They should also not bathe because that is what has caused all these problems [of spread of HIV].”
He also recommended circumcision for women suggesting the virus, which causes Aids, breeds better in women than men.
But women’s organisations and HIV and Aids activists on Tuesday accused Senator Femai of being "misguided and clueless.”
“As an organisation we are disheartened to read that someone elected to represent people can utter such words,” said Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association chairperson Ms Merit Runema.
Gender violence
“It is a reflection and conceptualisation of HIV issues in society and it is clear the Senator does not know how HIV spreads.