       Document 0709
 DOCN  M9490709
 TI    Attitudes to sex and sexual behaviour in rural Matabeleland, Zimbabwe.
 DT    9411
 AU    Vos T; Department of Health, Matabeleland North Province, Zimbabwe.
 SO    AIDS Care. 1994;6(2):193-203. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/94339210
 AB    Though HIV prevention campaigns in Zimbabwe have increased public
       awareness of HIV, they have not meaningfully changed sexual behaviour.
       Possibly these campaigns are based on wrong assumptions about sexual
       behaviour. By means of 111 structured interviews with hospital patients,
       secondary school students and teachers, and 11 focus group discussions
       with traditional healers, midwives, village community workers, secondary
       school students and teachers, and commercial sex workers in a rural
       district of Matabeleland in Zimbabwe, this low-budget study explores
       attitudes towards sex and sexual behaviour in order to define more
       appropriate health education messages. Results indicate that traditional
       sex education no longer takes place and that communication between
       sexual partners is limited. The almost ubiquitous expectation of women
       to get rewards for sex outside marriage motivates mostly single women
       out of economic necessity to meet the male demand for sexual partners,
       which is created by large scale migrant labour and men's professed
       'biological' need for multiple partners. Types of sexual behaviour other
       than penetrative vaginal sex are uncommon and considered deviant. Safe
       sex messages from the West therefore are inappropriate in the Zimbabwean
       context. Recommendations are given to restore traditional communication
       about sexual matters across generations and to urge sexual partners to
       discuss sex. Women who, for economic reasons, engage in casual sex
       should at least learn to negotiate the use of condoms. Men seriously
       need to reconsider their attitudes to sex and sexual practices in view
       of the high HIV sero-prevalence. Faithfulness, rather than multiple
       sexual contacts, should become a reason to boast.
 DE    Adolescence  Adult  *Developing Countries  Extramarital Relations
       Female  Gender Identity  Human  HIV Infections/*PREVENTION &
       CONTROL/PSYCHOLOGY/TRANSMISSION  *Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice  Male
       Medicine, Traditional  Prostitution/PSYCHOLOGY  *Rural Population  *Sex
       Behavior  Sex Education  Sexual Abstinence  Social Values  Support,
       Non-U.S. Gov't  Zimbabwe  JOURNAL ARTICLE

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
       protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.Code).

