10 - HIV+ Feminisms, Postcoloniality and the Global AIDS Crisis

Summary

The link between inequality, poverty and gender discrimination on the other hand is very strong.… The starting point for an adequate response is the understanding that any bid to halt the AIDS epidemic has to include determined efforts to eradicate poverty.

(UNDP 2000: 53, 56)

Introduction: Have You Heard Me Today?

The subject of HIV+ feminisms and postcoloniality in the global AIDS crisis is appropriate for several reasons. In 2003 the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, set up a commission to investigate the relationship between women, the girl and HIV and AIDS. The resulting Southern African based report pointed out that women and girls were highly affected and infected by HIV and AIDS in the areas of the spread of the disease, care-giving, stigmatization and access to treatment. Indeed, it has been found that “young girls and women 15–24 years of age have 2–8 times higher infection rates than men of the same age” (Weinreich and Benn 2004: 27). Following the UN commission, the 2004 AIDS epidemic report noted that:

Around the world, the epidemic's escalating impact on women is occurring in the context of profound gender, class and other inequalities. This is also evident in industrialized countries in Western Europe and North America, where about one quarter of people living with HIV women are, and where HIV has become increasingly lodged among women who belong to marginalized sections of populations, including minorities and refugees.