Title: The contribution of harmful traditional practices to HIV transmission among adolescent and adult females in Sub-Saharan Africa: a victimological approach

Authors: Bruno Meini; Mara Tognetti Bordogna

Addresses: Observatory and Methods for Health, Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano-Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi 8, 20126 Milano, Italy ' Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano-Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi 8, 20126 Milano, Italy

Abstract: Harmful traditional practices are manifestations of gender-based discrimination caused by rooted unequal power relations between females and males and also represent a serious human rights violation affecting the rights of girls and women to health and safety. Although they are as diverse as the culture in which they occur, a common attribute of these practices is that they are related to female sexuality and are often enforced as a way of strengthening male domination. This study analyses the potential association between the harmful aspects of widow inheritance, virginity testing, female genital mutilation, and HIV transmission in adolescent and adult females. The main results of this analysis show how harmful traditional practices are mostly carried out without the consent of the victims involved and thus constitute a violation of international human rights laws. In general, this article significantly contributes to the multifaceted field of the victimology of human rights.

Keywords: females; polygyny; widow inheritance; widow cleansing; virginity testing; virgin cleansing myth; female genital mutilation; HIV infection; victimology of human rights; health victimology; Sub-Saharan Africa.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGSDS.2019.096773

International Journal of Gender Studies in Developing Societies, 2019 Vol.3 No.1, pp.37 - 59

Received: 31 Aug 2017
Accepted: 31 Jul 2018
Published online: 10 Dec 2018 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article