Risky traditions spread HIV/AIDS

The Supreme Council of Muslim Preachers of Kenya (SUPKEM) on Tuesday said the cultural tradition of "wife inheritance" was contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS. A recent Human Rights Watch report showed that women were forced to engage in risky sexual practices in order to keep their property after their husbands died. SUPKEM urged communities to extend support to widows without enforcing the traditional rules of inheritance. "Not only are these practices a violation of women's rights, they may also prove deadly," SUPKEM vice chairman, Munir Mazrui, told the UN news service PlusNews. Mazrui said these practices and their impact were magnified by the country's high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate. UNAIDS estimates that 15 percent of the country's adults are infected with HIV/AIDS.