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Golrokh Jahanshahrad
Nursing and Midwifery School, Islamic Azad University, Khorasgan Branch
'Human Rights, Women and HIV/AIDS'
Of the over 60 million people who have been infected with HIV in the past 20 years, about half become infected between the ages of 15 and 24.Young women are several times more likely than young men to be infected with HIV. Such statistics underscore the urgent need to address HIV/AIDS among youth, particularly young women. Where heterosexual transmission of HIV dominates, often more young women are infected than young men. The risk of becoming infected with HIV during unprotected sex is two to four times greater for a woman than a man. Male-to-female transmission is more likely. Women's right to safe sexuality and to autonomy in all decisions relating to sexuality is respected almost nowhere. As it is intimately related to economic independence, this right is most violated in those places where women exchange sex for survival as a way of life. And we are not talking about prostitution but rather a basic social and economic arrangement between the sexes which results on the one hand from poverty affecting men and women, and on the other hand, from male control over women's lives in a context of poverty. Reproductive rights embrace certain human rights that are already recognized in national law, international law and international human rights documents, and other consensus documents. These rights include recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. Also included is their right to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence, as expressed in human rights documents. In this paper I intend to explain these rights, and the necessity of performance of them.
Bio: Dr Golrokh Jahanshahrad is a PhD candidate in Reproductive Health (American university of Hawaii). In 1997 she gained her MSc in Midwifery Education, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Isfahan University of Medical Science and Health Services. In 1992 she gained her BSc in Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery Isfahan. She is presently the Head of the Midwifery Department, Nursing and Midwifery School, Islamic Azad University Khorasgan Branch. She is also a Faculty Member of the Midwifery Department of Islamic Azad University Khorasgan Branch.
<golrokh_rad@yahoo.com>