One thing I’m learning about here in Vienna at the International AIDS Conference is the link between violence against women and HIV/AIDS. We know that both are bad, but how are they linked? Violence against women, and especially sexual violence, can put women and girls at risk of HIV in a number of ways, whether it’s due to forced unprotected sex or through unequal power in relationships that make it hard for women to demand safe sex. As well, if a girl experiences sexual abuse as a child, she is more likely to face risk for HIV in the form of drug use or sex work, for example.

The relationship doesn’t just go in one direction, though. Violence can cause higher HIV risk but HIV can also lead to violence. It seems that women who have HIV are more at risk of violence because they are often blamed for bringing the disease into the household (regardless of whether it’s true or not). In some cases, they are rejected from their homes or families because of their HIV positive status.

I learned that 1 in 3 women globally experience gender-based violence (physical or sexual), and what’s the most interesting is that intimate partner violence is the most common. In other words, women are most likely to experience violence from their partners, not from strangers.  \

If HIV risk and violence against women go hand in hand, we have an extra reason to focus on reducing violence, including rape and physical abuse.  Stop violence against women and girls!