[health] AIDS/HIV

Manhood might be hard to define but South African media make it even harder, according to editors of a new book, who argue that negative coverage of men is doing more harm than good, especially when it comes to HIV. Now they are looking to rewrite masculinity in a country that ranks among the most gender inequitable in the world. 

The nightclub is heaving, sweaty and loud, pulsating with blinding blue and white lights, and packed with drunken dancers. At the bar, the young sons of Burma's elite are buying bottles of Jack Daniel's and Johnnie Walker with thick wads of dirty kyat notes. But inside the double doors and through the dark fog of the smoke machine, a cultural transformation is taking place on the dance floor. Clubbers are grinding up against each other – girls on girls, boys on boys – singing along to American hip-hop blaring out of the giant speakers in the corner.

In a country that still criminalises homosexual activity – a legacy from when the British once ruled this country of 50 million – such sights have long been kept out of view. But as Burma slowly opens up, many of its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population are hoping they will no longer have to stay in the shadows.

Umbassil* is unlike other engaged women. Instead of planning her wedding she is wondering where she will have her baby. She is not pregnant but she knows that Bahrain's maternity hospitals will not admit her because she is HIV positive. The 26 year old who refuses to allow HIV to stop her from living her life to the fullest, is bothered by the prospect of being forced to deliver her baby in a country other than her own. "I have come to terms with artificial insemination and caesarean section (C-section) to protect my future husband and baby from contracting the virus, but I cannot accept (that I have) to deliver far away from my country and family members," she told IPS. 

Muslim leaders in Kenya's North Eastern Province have resolved to campaign against the promotion of condoms as a means of preventing HIV.
Kit utilitaire pour l’action [Understanding and Challenging HIV Stigma : Toolkit for Action] - par Ross Kidd, Sue Clay, Chipo Chiiya, et Mutale Chonta.
Only when Tajikistan breaks down the walls of silence and prejudice surrounding HIV/AIDS can it hope to slow infection rates.
"According to the Buddhist Leadership Initiative, almost 30 percent of monks in China, Cambodia and Laos have received training on HIV & AIDS."
About 50 representatives from across Muslim Asia called for greater understanding and more decisive action on HIV & AIDS in Sri Lanka in mid-August.
A Movement-Building Institute (November 19-22, 2007), Johannesburg
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