It is extremely important that you have mentioned the particular aspects of the HIV/AIDS problem that you have, i.e. early marriage, and the stigma that prevents prevention of the disease, such as with mother to child infection. The attitudes that perpetuate this system amount to socially sanctioned slaughter, or, death-by-belief. Take the following piece of evidence from an Indian study on girls education among low income rural groups: “The practice of early marriage has its origins in several deep-rooted cultural beliefs, social situations, and economic conpulsions. For instance, a very strong belief that girls should not be sent to school or kept unmarried after puberty [was found in several areas of the study, one being Chamrajnagar district, Karnataka state, India]….It is ironic that despite the high participation of women in work…..the cultural environment is so conservative that school attendance by adolescent girls is associated with immorality.” – India country-wide study by Jyotsna Jha and Dhir Jhingran (2005) Elementary Education for the Poorest and Other Deproved Groups. New Delhi: Manohar. For a global overview of early marriage, see UNICEF (2006), Early Marriage: a Harmful Traditional Practice: a Statistical Exploration, which is available on line as a PDF. Also, in addition to HIV/AIDS, death in child birth – maternal mortality – is very much higher for young girls who have been forced to have children. We need to be explicit about what amounts to the killing of these girls, that it is gross negligence by those with a duty of care, and not high morality that is being practiced. Irene Khan of Amnesty International recently stated at the UK launch at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London) of her book The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights, that culture and religion are not acceptable reasons for denial of human rights. Anyone who doubts this should consult the account of the life of Phoolan Devi (a woman from a disadvantaged group in India) also known as the “bandit queen”, who was married at arond the age of 12-13 years. She is reported to have made a strong example, later, of her husband who raped her as a child-wife, with respect to the practice of child marriage. My own research on widows in Sub-Saharan Africa highlights the widespread practice of widow “cleansing” – where the widow is required to have sexual intercourse with her dead husband’s brother or a designated “cleanser” who is often paid for this “service” to avoid husbands’ brothers from becoming infected with HIV/AIDS (notice that they are not worried about whether the “cleanser” is HIV positive). Widow “cleansing” has been heavily linked to the spread of HIV/AIDS, yet the practice still persists. In once case, an HIV/AIDS awareness activist went through with “cleansing” and later died of HIV/AIDS.

A correction to the end of my post above: the words in parentheses should read ….(notice that they are not worried about whether the “cleanser is HIV positive for the widow)….