24.07.05 - 17:13

Disclaimer: This entry is about AIDS and reproductive health and contains some graphic sexual language. If this offends you, please feel free to skip this entry.

And finally.

MAURITANIAN MYTH THREE: CONDOMS They are incredibly difficult to find. And there is no education on how to use them. (No, it's not obvious how to put one on. If you put it on upside-down, for instance, the condom is contaminated. And oils break down the latex - not that Mauritanians use lubrication. The enjoyment (or even lack-of-pain) of the woman is not important.)

Condoms can only be sold to married men, by law. (Actually, a woman needs her husband's permission in order to go on The Pill, as well.) In small towns, it is impossible to buy a condom without everyone knowing about it. My friends tell me that they get economy-sized boxes when they visit Nouakchott, then share them with each other. But when they run out, they run out. And they don't stop having sex.

Speaking of sex, there is absolutely no education about what THAT is, either. I have heard that men will make love to the back of a woman's knee, so as to avoid impregnation. I've also heard that in other surrounding countries, such as Morocco, anal sex is not considered "sex," and thus widely practiced to preserve a woman's technical virginity.

The problem is, there is no knowledge of the connection between sexual fluids and HIV transmission. So, "sex" can lead to AIDS, but perhaps knee, oral, and anal sex don't. Which, as we hopefully all know, is completely false. But again, any sort of explicit education is forbidden by the conservative society. People are told not to have sex before marriage, and then to be faithful. Maybe someone holds up a condom, still in its wrapper, though this was a huge scandal when it happened in Kankossa. And that's it! Sex can infect you with AIDS, but how? No one really seems to know.

Mauritanians desperately need sex education. They need to understand how their bodies work. They need to stop being ashamed of their natural biologies. And then they need to talk frankly about safe and unsafe practices.

These types of cultural changes take manymany years. I have often heard "Don't push Mauritanians where they're not ready to go." But by the time Mauritanian sexual norms have changed this much, thousands of them will be dead of AIDS because they just wouldn't listen when the information could have saved them.

OK, politically, abstinence-based AIDS programs just don't work here. Or, I should think, anywhere. More than that, they can be irresponsible. And deny funding to programs which, through safe sex training, really could save some lives. This is directed at you, Mr. Bush.

The right response seems to be South Africa's: ABC. 1, Abstinence (still the only 100% effective way to avoid STDs) 2, Be faithful. 3, Condoms.

AIDS is not a new issue. But we need to pay just as much attention to it as we ever have. More, even. African deaths affect the whole world. And then, personally, I'm really worried about my friends here. The ones who are looking for information, but have been unable to find it (at least, until I came along and started talking to - and yelling at - them honestly and explicitly) and who still have not been tested. The ones I see pass by my house every night with a different girl.

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