The triple whammy: Women's new curse

Julia Suryakusuma ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 03/26/2008 1:15 AM

Indonesians have a saying, Sudah jatuh, tertimpa tangga pula (it's bad enough to fall off a ladder, but then you get hit by the falling ladder too), meaning to be struck by one misfortune after another. This is what happened to Laksmi, an attractive young middle-class mother of Chinese descent.

Still grieving the death of her husband, she was shocked to discover not only had he died of AIDS, but he had infected her as well. She then suffered yet another blow, as her car and house were taken by her late husband's business "colleagues", who claimed he died with debts unpaid. But then came the blow of blows; her Javanese in-laws accused her of having infected their son.

Women are so often blamed for anything and everything that goes wrong in families, so they pinned it all on Laksmi because sons can never be wrong, right?

But the blame game wasn't enough either. Determined to avenge their son's death, the in-laws vowed to take their granddaughter Bebe (Belinda) away, saying Laksmi was an unfit mother because she had AIDS. Mother and daughter soon became fugitives from their own family, with Laksmi taking any job she could find -- no matter how demeaning -- just to survive. But as the HIV virus gradually overcame her, she realized she had no choice but to do the unthinkable: surrender her child to the odious in-laws, leaving her utterly alone, bereft of purpose and hope.

Pretty dramatic huh? Well, that's not surprising. Laksmi is a character in an omnibus film called Perempuan Punya Cerita (Women's Stories), by four Indonesian female film directors. Like all tales told in this film, Laksmi's tale is based on a true story -- and that makes it all the more dramatic. And tragic.

But maybe not so unusual. Asia is now predicted to be the next hot-spot in the HIV-AIDS epidemic (after Africa), and Indonesia is already at the crossroads. We may have had low HIV levels in the 90s, but the economic crisis changed all that. Sub-epidemics have since developed rapidly in communities with highest prevalence in Jakarta, Papua, East Java and Bali.

Men having sex with men (MSMs), injecting drug users (IDU's), sex workers and their clients have always been considered at high risk. Increasingly, however, 'good women' in Asia are now contracting HIV-AIDS: wives, girlfriends and partners. This is often through no fault of their own. Like it or not, it still seems culturally acceptable for men to sleep around, but you'd think they could at least use condoms* Nope: only 10 percent of commercial sex users ever bother to roll the latex into place before taking the plunge. They don't want to reduce their pleasure for even a second, even if it means being infected and then infecting their wives or girlfriends.

This so-called 'feminization' of HIV-AIDS is directly related to the feminization of poverty, which puts women on the frontlines of the disease. And their traditional role as care-givers means even if women are not victims themselves, they are often providing the bulk of home-based care for those who are.

Unfortunately, however, most people don't immediately see a link between gender equality and the trend towards increasing female HIV-AIDS infections and, indeed, the reasons are complex.

First there's the burgeoning of the sex industry, female migration and trafficking in women (modern sex slavery). That wouldn't have anything to do with poverty and the deteriorating economic situation, would it? And STD infections are on the increase in general, something to which the rise of the sex industry and low condom use naturally contributes.

And then there's the relatively early marrying age of Indonesian women (often to older men), as well as rapid urbanization and high population migration (both of which bring increased premarital and extramarital sex) and the proliferation of needles and contaminated health equipment, infected blood and IDUs.

From about 1987, the government (and NGOs) began to respond to HIV by forming various committees (well, that should fix it*), but health has taken a back seat since the 1997 crisis.

Decentralization has not helped either, because a lack of clarity regarding the roles and responsibilities of different levels of government is a recipe for buck-passing.

There's also a lot of denial and double-standards at work. Culture and religion say sex is purely a marital activity. Hello? Let's get real here: Studies show more than half of men with high mobility purchase sex -- and most of them are married. Despite this, conservative religious leaders oppose obvious strategies for managing HIV-AIDS such as needle exchanges, sex-education and promoting the use of condoms, claiming they promote drug use and free sex. They say the only way to manage the spread of HIV-AIDS is by strengthening traditional family values and by making people more devout. Talk about playing ostrich.

However, the stigma spread by the media is even more influential than religious conservativism. Our press and broadcasters continue to propagate prejudiced myths that HIV-AIDS is an untreatable disease that kills people, that it's easily transmitted and can't be stopped or that it's a shameful disease.

But the reality is that STDs -- including HIV-AIDS -- can be treated, and infection rates have even been turned around in some countries. Indonesia needs to follow suit, and fast, focusing on women -- whether they're sex-workers, migrant workers, partners of high-risk males or female teens -- because they are especially vulnerable.

Yes, HIV-AIDS prevention in Indonesia has already fallen off the ladder, but will we let the damage continue? I hope not. If the triple whammy of sexual discrimination, the HIV-AIDS stigma and inadequate strategies and health care are not stopped quickly, Indonesian HIV-AIDS prevention will be like the last scene of the childless Laksmi, riding aimlessly around in a bus with no clear destination.

The writer is the author of Sex, Power and Nation. She can be contacted at jsuryakusuma*gmail.com.

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