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Abstract:
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Women are at the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Malawi. By 2004, 57 per cent of infected adults were women. Although the gender dimensions of HIV/AIDS are recognised, the issues of how women lack power are not fully understood, and the response fails to effectively engage with the gender context. Drawing upon original data from 44 key-informant interviews, this paper examines how the gendered construction of women's embodied experiences of power are usual hidden from mainstream political analyses, this focus challenges the domain of the political and the international. Rather than imposing responses tom the top down based on best practices policy must be responsive to specific gender contexts. Where HIV/AIDS spreads along the gender fault lines of society, it sheds light on how women’s embodied experiences of power are oppressive and provides the space to challenge them. |