The Link Between HIV/AIDS and Violence Against Women

Women Won't Wait , a new international coalition of women's rights groups, has released a report entitled Show Us the Money: Is Violence Against Women on the HIV & AIDS Funding Agenda?  Here is a brief summary of the report:

The new study finds that leaders in the fight against AIDS have failed to consistently and adequately address the relationship between violence against women and HIV.  Recent findings from a 10-country study conducted by the World Health Organization confirmed that violence against women is widespread, and that between 13 percent and 61 percent of women in the countries surveyed had experienced sexual violence and coercion at the hands of husbands and intimate partners.  Moreover, HIV-positive women face high levels of violence.  For example, though many women contract HIV from their husbands, within marriage, they are often blamed for infections when their positive status becomes known.  Violence is, therefore, a cause and a consequence of the rapid spread of HIV among women, who now represent at least half of those infected worldwide and more than 60 percent of those infected in sub-Saharan Africa.

You can read more about the report and obtain a free copy here.