CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY
5.2 Summary of the findings
5.2.5 Human rights (including sexual and reproductive rights)
Feminist theories that women have fewer rights than men still hold true with rural Zulu women (Van Zoonen, 1991: 20; Ritzer, 1992: 44). This study shows that while the Zulu culture accepts that rural KwaZulu-Natal black women should be treated like children and that culturally they have no rights, the Government of South Africa, Bill of Rights (Constitution of South Africa ACT 108 of 1996) stipulates that all humans are equal before the law and have the right to freedom of expression and to other rights. Some women are aware of such rights but cannot exercise them owing to the gender relations embedded in their society.
For instance women cannot exercise rights to refuse unprotected sex and to have sexual intercourse only when they want to. This means that the women's knowledge of their rights does not help them avoid HIV infection from their sexual partners.
There is no question of wanting or not wanting to engage in sexual intercourse because when husbands or any sexual partner wants to have sex with a woman,
even without the use of protection, women cannot refuse. Though older women blame the South African Government for married women's misbehaviour, the Government has given rights to women. The older women support fully women's rights to negotiate safer sex with their sexual partners instead of contracting HIV and dying, leaving orphans with the grandmothers. Mothers-in-law are resourceful agents of change if the wives of their sons fear to communicate with their husbands on sexual matters pertaining to sex protection.
Regarding sexual communication between married women and their husbands, a shift has been seen where sexual communication has become easier and women more assertive. This particularly occurs when women are employed, in a polygamous marriage, are participants in Africa Centre Studies, when they have discovered that their partners have sexual relations with other women and when they know that their husbands have STIs. Women's ability to communicate verbally (and even refusal of unprotected sex) on sexual matters occurs even if women are conscious of their husbands' 'right' to ejaculate inside them and where they are bound to be submissive.
What seems liberating to previously gender-constrained women is affected by the cunningness of men. When women refuse to have sex with their partners without protection, men make accusations that they are refusing because they have other men. In order to prove their sexual partners wrong, women succumb to having unprotected sex with them.
Zulu culture requires women to call their husbands "baba", meaning father, which reinforces the man's dominance in the relationship. However the shift from the inability to the ability of women to communicate on sexual matters, as discussed above shows that some women are able to refuse to have unprotected sex with their husbands. Some Zulu cultural men have become caregivers. They look after their children while their wives become migrant labourers as domestic workers.
This shows that culture is not static and that the ties of patriarchy are loosening.
Such changes mean an improvement in the oppressive state of women and mean that when empowered enough, women can actually take a firm stand and refuse to have unprotected sexual intercourse.
It is not only individuals that show changes from being conservative towards being liberated, but even the community shows some shift in what they believe about women. For instance, the community gives moral support to married women who are emotionally and sexually abused by their husbands, by informing the wife about any sexual misbehaviour of the husband and by giving support when the wife eventually decides to divorce the husband. Though this kind of community support against men's infidelity was reported by only one woman, if used adequately, community mobilization could be facilitated even for sex-related issues.
A woman's personality also plays a role in her decision-making abilities. Because women are not expected to go back to their families after marriage, they develop
feelings of helplessness and of being trapped in their marriages. Another personal issue is that they feel they have to sacrifice their lives because of the children. Women feel they should be role models to the children and should also not disgrace their families by leaving the marriage no matter what their conditions are. All these rights-related factors further exacerbate women's vulnerability to HIV infection.
The study undertaken by Hosegood and Solarsh (2001:15) about marriages in the DSA, shows that the number of marriages has declined. According to the participants in this study, the decline may be due, among other factors to the unhappiness experienced by women in their marriages. Women may decide not to marry at all to avoid the abuse they would experience if they were married.
This shows that the cultural and intrinsic need to marry is changing so that women are able to exercise their right of choice. Given enough knowledge and skills, women can choose with whom, how and when to engage in sexual practices.