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Is abstaining from sex akin to abstaining from reality?
About this event: 3rd Africa Conference on Sexual Health And Rights Abuja 2008
Related to country: Nigeria

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

It was not unexpected that the controversial abstinence issue
would rear its head at the ongoing 3rd Africa Sexuality Conference
holding in Abuja,Nigeria.But the fact that it came in a rather
combustible manner left many people wondering how far opponents
and proponents of the abstinence-only campaign would go.

Delegates at the sexuality conference came hard on abstinence
only approach describing it as a sham and asking that it be thrown
into the trash can. Some delegates tagged it an act of "abstaining
from reality" and challenged proponents to come up with evidence of
best practice to justify its further implementation.

Delegates bared their minds in disagreement with the abstinence only
policy of the US government at an interactive session on sexual and
reproductive health and rights issue, and practical gender rights and
sexuality programming tools organised by the International Planned
Parenthood Federation.

The passion and vehemence from delegates in demanding that abstinence
only measures be trashed was reinforced by a video clip titled
"abstaining from reality".

The video clip showed the true story of Juliet a young Kenyan girl who
abstained from sex until she was 17 years. Juliet made a decision to
have sex with her boyfriend and both agreed to use condom but,neither
of them knew how to use a condom. They had been exposed to abstinence
only measures and lacked knowledge of post abstinence options.

Juliet, on her very first sex act, became pregnant and infected with
HIV.

Lesley Ann Foster, president Amanitare - a regional network that
works to promote the sexual health and rights of women in Africa
said "abstinence only measures ignores the fact that girls and women
in Africa do not have consensual sex and as such a lot of the times
are not in a position to negotiate sex.

"Abstinence only" wrongly presumes that sex is only penetrative and
excludes risks from other forms of sex like oral sex".

Cecilia Kihara, IPPF Nairobi, Kenya added that the post election
violence in Kenya expose women to sexual violence like rape which
strengthens the fact that women are not always in a position to
negotiate
sex or make the choice of when,where and with whom to have sex .

A delegate described abstinence only measures thus "it is like walking
into a hospital and saying that only one prescription will treat all
ailments suffered by every patient in that hospital".

The session moderated by Cecilia Kihara of IPPF identified the
following
limitations as bedevilling abstinence only SRH measures:
-Abstinence only is valuable for people who have not had sex. It
excludes sexually active youths. The secondary virginity gimmick is
not realistic. This is so because even that well-intending young
boy or girl who wants to practice abstinence at some point is
confronted with sex and may find him self doing it.
What is needed is comprehensive sex education for our young people.

-Abstinence require a lot skill but, is the abstinence only programmes
equipping our young people with the skills to abstain. It is not enough
to say abstain,teach them how to abstain.

-Let abstinence be one of the many choices and not the only choice
open to a young person.

-What are the post abstinence measures?

-It wrongly assumes that every body wants to be married because
abstinence
only messages ask that you abstain until married

-Abstinence creates more curiosity among youths, a delegate from Kenya
said a project which was conducted among youths in Kenya showed that
youths instead of imbibing the teachings of abstinence get more curious
about sex and make jokes of abstinence only slogans or
catch phrases.

Unanimously, delegates agreed that to make sexual health accessible to
all, abstinence should be a component of a comprehensive sex education
and not an only approach.



February 11, 2008 | 10:58 AM Comments  0 comments

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