Women are much more discriminated

“Women are more discriminated against than men because women depend on the men. An infected man can have sexual relationships with many women just because he has money. I mean, there is a lot of difference between a man and a woman. A man can know that he is infected and not tell his wife, or tell her and relax. But when it is the wife telling the husband there is a lot of difference. Men are aggressive and they say that it was the wife who brought the HIV. Men say many things and they ask for a divorce. So women are much more discriminated.

People will say that she betrayed her husband and was infected… They forget that it may be the husband who infected the wife. Nowadays men do not like going to hospital but women always go for family planning or when they are pregnant. So when they go there they are asked to do the test and they easily find out their condition. If she is positive her husband accuses her that she betrayed him and got infected.

He asks for divorce alleging that she is the one who is infected, he is not. But if it is the husband who is infected, the wife is tolerant. If they do the test and find out that the wife is infected but the husband is not the husband asks for divorce accusing her of betrayal. Or if she tells the husband to do the test he does not accept saying that you are the one who is infected, I am not. As most of the women do not work, they depend on their husbands, the husbands do whatever they feel like doing and their wives cannot say anything, they just look at them. When the husband is infected and the wife is not she supports him but when it is the wife the husband does not support her.”

Artanesa Malfoi, female, 23 years, Mozambique

Transcribing a practice interview, oral testimony workshop, Mozambique

Every day from the 1st of July until the 21st of July we will be sharing extracts from 21 oral testimonies of 21 men and women living with HIV in Swaziland, Ethiopia and Mozambique. We’ll share these extracts here on this blog – with daily links on twitter and facebook. On the 21st of July, our partner the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) will launch a publication of these testimonies at the International AIDS conference 2014. Read more about 21 stories 21 days. Read more about the project