Betcha didn’t know this one: “In the scholarly literature, the traditional [African] practice of the husband’s family inheriting all his property after he dies is called “property stripping.” Well, this causes problems:
In sub-Saharan Africa almost 60 percent of AIDS sufferers are women [and] in some settings … we are finding … that the number one risk factor for women in becoming infected with HIV is marriage.
[M]arried women have the highest rates of HIV infection. We have to take on some of the most fundamental and difficult cultural and social issues that are definitely affecting the way this epidemic is spreading. And … if we can take on things like for example, property rights [so] women can inherit the property of their husband if [he] dies, that really reduces the likelihood of them getting into sex work for example.
Typical scenario: Young African male plays around, gets infected with HIV from prostitutes. Western aid groups (among others) encourage marriage and monogamy to reduce the spread of AIDS. So the male gets married and infects his wife. If he gets AIDS first and dies, she gets nothing from his estate and is out on the street with little choice but to work as a prostitute. If she gets AIDS first, she’s thrown out of the monogamous relationship and has little choice but to work as a prostitute. See a pattern?
Read the whole thing. There’s lots of interesting stuff there.