The National AIDS Commission has decided to advertise the use of female condoms in Papua in order to reduce the rate of HIV/AIDS in the region. NAC secretary-general, Nafsiah Mbo announced that the commission had distributed around 900 condoms among females in the area to see how the contraceptive would be received in the community.
Nafsiah said the initiative to provide condoms to females was a good one since it had borne fruit in diverse countries like Thailand and Zimbabwe and had succeeded in reducing the infection rates there. "The HIV infection rate is increasing much faster among women than among men in Indonesia. The percentage of new infections among women is very high," she said. "We have to provide female condoms so that women can protect themselves. Not just for injected-drug users or sex workers, but also housewives who know that their husbands are unfaithful."
Across the world women account for almost 50 percent of HIV/AIDS affected persons. In fact at the AIDS summit held in June, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had called for fighting the increasingly female face of AIDS. But the prevailing prejudices in the society make it tough for women and girls to have a say in sexual matters. That is why the female condom could provide an answer, "It's a pilot study to see how people like it, and we also train people to promote it," Nafsiah said.
Zimbabwean activist Caroline Maposhere said the female condom would empower women. "In terms of alcohol and drugs, people are often too drunk and too high to put on a condom. With the female condom, women who are injected-drug users are already protected," Maposhere said.
