One in Three Women

By Stephanie Urdang

Johannesburg

When an older man raised his hand to speak on the third day of a gender workshop in Hoedspruit, a rural community in northern South Africa, Bafana Khumalo’s heart sank. As the facilitator of the workshop, which specifically targeted men, he had already touched on what makes men real men and how the unequal power between men and women was helping to fuel the sky-rocketing increase in HIV and AIDS in South Africa.

Mr. Khumalo worried that the participant would give a lecture about how thinking that men and women are equal goes against African culture or how giving women power is dividing families. Older men are deeply respected in rural communities and he knew this man could spoil the workshop.

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