Traditionally, women were not supposed to enjoy sex. Increasingly, however, they are asserting their own sexual needs and priorities. Promiscuity is prevalent predominantly because heterosexual relationships are changing,'' said Peter Schmidt, a German doctor serving as chief medical officer in the AIDS-afflicted Ohanguena region of Namibia. This is a very sensitive subject and very difficult to tackle. The heterosexual nature of the epidemic does not rule out the probability that HIV is also transmitted between men, but homosexuality is deeply closeted in African societies and there are comparatively far fewer same-sex infections, according to AIDS experts.
Youths provide a compelling reason to think differently about behavior.
Across the region, young people have been exposed to more education about HIV and condoms than their elders, yet they have the highest infection rates. Knowledge about risk and condoms hasn't slowed the epidemic. Consequently, the social ills governing gender relations among adults reappear among youths. Both men and women in the study said that condoms threatened trust within the relationship. Most women said they were powerless against male sexual coercion.