The cultural context of women's and girls' vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection in Thyolo and Mulanje districts in Malawi

This chapter is based on the results of a qualitative investigation conducted in a selected set of villages within the districts of Thyolo and Mulanje in Malawi. The study was designed to unearth some of the cultural beliefs which work towards increasing women's and girl's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in these two districts. The chapter begins by offering an assessment of how females, younger girls in particular, continue to bear the brunt of HIV/AIDS in Malawi. The results of the study are then discussed with reference to the prevailing cultural context in the two districts. We briefly describe the 'coming of age' process among girls (initiation ceremonies), as well as the cultural and economic factors, such as sexual abuse and gender/power relations, which contribute toward the vulnerability of females to HIV-infection. Here we discuss how the selected study communities are responding to HIV/AIDS, with particular reference to how these communities are abandoning harmful cultural practices that have historically exacerbated the vulnerability of females to HIV/AIDS-infection. The chapter concludes by noting that there is need for more effort to remove certain social/cultural (gender inequality), political, and economic conditions which create and sustain the vulnerability of females to HIV-infection.