Malawi Muslims Official Website
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Home
  • Religion
  • Business
  • Health
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • World
Contact Us
  • Home
  • Religion
  • Business
  • Health
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • World
No Result
View All Result
Malawi Muslims Official Website
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Religion
  • Business
  • Health
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • World
Home Column

Why Does the Eastern Region of Malawi Has a Very High HIV/AIDS Prevalence Rates

weniweni by weniweni
10 years ago
in Column, Featured
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
0
0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Whatsapp

Opponents of the universal male circumscision in Malawi often cite the eastern region of Malawi districts as the best example as to why male circumscion cannot prevent the spread of HIV/Aids.

RELATED POSTS

Pastor Asks for Masajid

Business Tycoon Donates Football Kit to Mangochi Police

Islamic School Director Seeks Help

The eastern region districts which include Mangochi, Machinga, Zomba and Balaka have a high concentration of Muslims whose males are circumscised as part of their religious rites and one wonders as to why the same districts have a very high HIV/Aids prevalence rates.

One of the arguments that have been put forward is that once the male organ loses its foreskin, it loses its sensitivity during sexual activity, as such the couple never gets satisfied sexually and hops to another person, only to be disappointed again. In the process, the virus spreads unabated.

Others have cited polygammy as the driving factor, yet there are polygammous communities whose status are not as critical as it is in the eastern region.

Others have also argued that the very fact that the virus is rapidly spreading in those areas, is enough proof that aids prevention through male circuscision is just a fallacy.

But why are Muslims themselves upbeat with male circumcision despite the startling HIV/Aids statistics?

It’s because it is factually true that a circumscised male has a less chance of contracting the virus than his uncircumscised friend.

I will not bother you with statistics to back my claims as I have found out that the statistics that are thrown here and there by many commentators are not only unrealistic but are completely baseless. There are put there just to impress the readers but they do not reflect the actual status on the ground.

In this presentation, I will give you only four insights as to why the eastern region is the lost case when it comes to HIV/Aids mitigation measures if radical measures are not taken immediately to address the situation.

a) High illiteracy levels

When Christian missionaries came to wipe Islam out of Malawi through the establishment of schools, Muslims had two choices to make, either to attend missionary schools and be forced to convert to Christianity, or stay at home and preserve their religion. They chose the latter.

Thanks to this heroism, Muslims now constitute an officially 13 percent of the population in Malawi.

Now to effectively communicate issues of national importance to such an illiterate population is quite a huge challenge. The recipients either consider such messages as mere myths or the normal government propaganda intended to brainwash them and therefore they never act upon them.

HIV/Aids messages are therefore one of those noises that are not taken seriously. They show commitment during HIV/Aids workshops but once the facilitators departs, the people go back to their old ways.

b) Initiation camps

This is a sensitive subject but having myself undergone the procedure, I am not ashamed to reveal one of the dirty secrets that happens at that end. It may not happen in all the camps, but the practice is quite common.

The camps are very important cultural colleges and those who went through those camps are very hard working, honest and culturally upright. No wonder, the region has been exporting unskilled labour since the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland todate to Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

But one main weakness of the camps is the subject that encourages sexual conquest in order to prove that you are now a man or woman. You are groomed to become a sexual predator and not to fear a member of the opposite sex.

Some go to the extent of fixing appointments between the boys and girls on the last day of the camp as a starting point. They taste the fruit, and the circus continues….

You have heard of real stories of people who went for workshops in Mangochi and forgot their way home. You have heard of the sexual ingenuity of Yao women in the region, who go to the extent of carrying men on their backs in their birthday suits when going to bathe.

They may have perfected the skills themselves but where do you think they learnt those antics?

The majority of the men that these women sleep with are uncircumscised, they carry the virus, and spread it across the aisle.

c) Lack of a marriage structure in Yao culture post independence

While Islam has a strict family structure, such a structure has diluted in the Yao culture most especially post the independence era. Unfortunately, Muslim leaders are not doing enough in educating the masses about the essence of a strict Muslim family.

I have observed that people marry at will. After a boy or girl graduates from the initiation camp, his/her parents no longer have any control over them. They marry or cohabit at will and parents don’t reproach them. I may have a new wife today, desert the marriage tomorrow and marry another girl a day after and nobody will care about it.

People are marrying not because they want to enter into a lifetime commitment but because it easy to do so.

d) You are treated as an outcast if you can’t prove your procreation prowess

In some areas, you are treated as a minor if you don’t make a woman pregnant, and in the case of a girl, if you don’t get pregnant. Again, don’t be surprised of a high rate of school drop-outs or early pregnancies in the eastern region.

A lot of girls and boys therefore sleep around with multiple partners to get a chance of proving their fertility because of pressure from their parents or peers.

Now we have sexually active boys and girls on the loose, what do you expect to be the results?

CONCLUSION

To say that the male circumscision does not prevent the spread of HIV/Aids by citing the eastern region of Malawi as the basis of their argument is misleading. They are ommitting important elements highlighted in this presentation that have led to such a status.

Any intervention measures that do not collectively address these factors will be useless.

ADVERTISEMENT

Research in other countries have proved beyond any reasonable doubt that circumscision is one of the HIV/Aids prevention measures that has to be pursued if , as a nation, we are really serious in kicking the HIV/Aids nuisance out of Malawi.

 

Feedback: majeed@malawimuslims.com

 

Tags: HIV/AIDSIslamReligion
ShareTweetSend

Related Posts

Pastor Gama
Featured

Pastor Asks for Masajid

by Davie Katuli
September 8, 2023
0
0

Speaking to the Muslim Media Agency, Pastor Gama said he has decided to replace his churches with masajid after participating...

Read more

Business Tycoon Donates Football Kit to Mangochi Police

Islamic School Director Seeks Help

Muslim Women Urged to be United

Mangochi Police PRO Inspires Pupils

Malawian -British Billionaire to Turn ‘ Iconic ‘ Trocadero building into Mosque

  • Organisation Drills Borehole in Balaka District: Urges Organisations to Develop Rural Areas

    Organisation Drills Borehole in Balaka District: Urges Organisations to Develop Rural Areas

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • LMJ Medicals for State-of-the-art Hospital

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Fuel Prices Go Up in Malawi

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Seek Knowledge Regardless of Age – Muslims Advised

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Police warn Malawians against sending money to unknown Facebook friends

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Organisation Drills Borehole in Balaka District: Urges Organisations to Develop Rural Areas

Organisation Drills Borehole in Balaka District: Urges Organisations to Develop Rural Areas

July 28, 2022

LMJ Medicals for State-of-the-art Hospital

December 6, 2015
Fuel Prices Go Up in Malawi

Fuel Prices Go Up in Malawi

March 8, 2021
Seek Knowledge Regardless of Age – Muslims Advised

Seek Knowledge Regardless of Age – Muslims Advised

May 11, 2022

Malawian Muslims Chased at Asian Muslims Milad–un-Nabee Feast

78

Supreme Council of Ulama Says Eid Adha Tuesday

28

Fatima Rajab the Guardian Angel, Abandoned for Refusing to Denounce Islam

24

MACRA BANS RADIO ISLAM PROGRAM

20
Pastor Gama

Pastor Asks for Masajid

September 8, 2023
Matola Visits Kapichira Hydropower Station

Matola Visits Kapichira Hydropower Station

August 5, 2023
Primary School Teacher Arrested for Defiling Teenage Learner

Primary School Teacher Arrested for Defiling Teenage Learner

August 3, 2023
Abida Mia encourages women to be independent & hardworking

Abida Mia encourages women to be independent & hardworking

July 31, 2023

Connect

Recent News

Pastor Gama

Pastor Asks for Masajid

September 8, 2023
Matola Visits Kapichira Hydropower Station

Matola Visits Kapichira Hydropower Station

August 5, 2023
Primary School Teacher Arrested for Defiling Teenage Learner

Primary School Teacher Arrested for Defiling Teenage Learner

August 3, 2023

Faith Podcast

Swalah 101

Ramadhan

Akudziwanji Za Chisilamu

Islamic Finance

Categories

  • Analysis
  • Business
  • Column
  • Crime and Society
  • Culture
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Featured
  • General
  • Health
  • International
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Religion
  • Sports
  • Travel

News in Pictures

Amir Jakhura
Amir Jakhura Addressing the Journalists
Some of the beneficiaries

© 2022 Malawi Muslims Official Website -Website by Freelance Web Solutions.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Religion
  • Business
  • Health
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • World

© 2022 Malawi Muslims Official Website -Website by Freelance Web Solutions.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?
-
00:00
00:00

Queue

Update Required Flash plugin
-
00:00
00:00