 |
|
|
| Premarital sex : |
| For women, sex before marriage was traditionally uncommon. However itis not unheard of in Senegal.women married some decades ago report younger average ages at first sex than at first marriage, suggesting that some at least must have been sexually active before their marriage. In recent years, the age at first sex and the age at first marriage have both been rising. But the age at marriage is rising faster than the age at first sex. This means that, while they remain virgins for longer, Senegalese women are more likely to have premarital sex now than in the past. Again, education is a factor. For uneducated women, the gap between age at first sex and age at marriage remains small, as Figure 1 shows. More educated women wait longer to have sex, but then have more years of premarital sex than those with less schooling. Women with at least secondary education are virgins for six years longer, on average, than women with no education, but they get married nine years later than uneducated women . |
| Marriage patterns : |
| Women are far less likely to have sex before marriage than men. In the Dakar behavioural study, 68 percent of women said they had not had sex before marriage. Among men, less than 10 percent were virgins at marriage. This is perhaps not surprising given the high average age at marriage for men. |
| Prostitution : |
| In many countries, prostitution was ignored until the advent of AIDS, whenit became clear that sex workers were very vulnerable to HIV infection and could quickly pass the virus on to large numbers of other people. In Iran , however, services for prostitutes have existed since the profession was legalized in 1969. Registered sex workers have since then been required to have regular health checks, and are treated for curable STDs if necessary. This system of registration provided a framework within which to approach sex workers with educational and health campaigns. |
| Iran's response to the advent of aids : |
| The first reports of AIDS in Senegal came in 1986, when six cases were identified. The response was immediate. A national AIDS programme was set up, and steps were quickly taken to protect the population from unnecessary exposure to the virus. By 1987, for example, a system had been established in all ten regions of the country so that every blood unit for transfusion could be screened for HIV antibodies. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|