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4 –
Daily Update
– DAY FOUR – Thursday 23 April 2009
'My mother told me she would rather have a child who is a
prostitute than a junkie.'
Niphattra Haritavorn gave this quote from
her research in Bangkok to demonstrate the obstacles and prejudice
faced by drug-using Thai women, at Wednesday's session on risk
environments and drug harms.
Viewed as unacceptable in society, drug-using women were
stigmatised both inside and outside the family, at more extreme
levels than men. One of the women who participated in the survey
said neighbours had asked her mother: 'How can you raise your
daughter to be a drug addict?'
For many, the 'good daughter' image was replaced by a 'junkie'
image. 'They keep an eye on me like I'm going to steal something
from the house,' another survey respondent had said. The word 'ra-
aa' had become commonplace – meaning 'to be bored with', and
used to describe the family's reaction to their drug-using daughter
when they are resigned to being unable to change their behaviour.
Many families reacted to the embarrassment and shame they felt
by enforcing their own social punishment on their drug user. One girl
described how her family did not tell her when her father had died.
Others explained how the traditional Thai family support structure of
using parents and grandparents to help with childcare had turned
against them when they had been denied access to their own
children by families who believed the child would lead a better life
away from the drug user.
For many women, violence and degradation – from partners,
police and even from others within the drug-using community – had
become a depressing part of daily life. Motherhood was often
unplanned because of drugs' influence on irregular periods and their
interference with effective condom use. Male pride was another
barrier to harm reduction, where men saw their partners' request for
a condom as a sign of infidelity: 'You are my wife, why do I have to
use a condom?', one man asked his partner.
In other cases, women assumed that because their partner was
HIV positive there was no point in wearing a condom, as they would
get the disease sooner or later, 'so why not now?'.
'We need a holistic intervention programme applicable to
women,' Ms Haritavorn stressed. 'Much of the activity around drugs
is an overtly masculine world.'
Masculine culture leaves no room
for Thai women's services
Indonesian study reveals macho risk-takers
Studying young male injecting drug
users in the slum areas of Makassar,
Indonesia, had revealed a culture of
macho risk-taking
, said Suderman Nasir,
offering a different perspective in the 'risk
environments' session.
Interviewing 18 young male IDUs at a local
drop-in centre had revealed risky injecting as
a major mode of HIV transmission among the
urban poor of the 'Larong' slum area. Their
'cluster of disadvantages' included high level
unemployment and few prospects of a better
standard of living, and there was interplay
between their socio-economic marginalisa-
tion and their pursuit of 'rewa' – the local
construct of masculinity. Participation in
gangs was a characteristic of Larong's risk
environment in initiating and maintaining a
drug injection career.
'You are not a real Larong boy if you
don't put a brave face against dangers...
using drugs or injecting putaw (street grade
heroin) are part of our daily life,' said one
respondent. Another added: 'Most of us are
unemployed and of course we are
depressed because there is nothing
meaningful to do. Being involved in a gang,
using drugs and injecting putaw makes us
busy and I forget our despair, at least for a
short period of time during the high.'
Analysing the results of the study,
Suderman Nasir said harm reduction
programmes needed to be complemented
with wider community-based programmes
that addressed socio-economic deprivation.
'We need to talk about the broader
issues of daily life – unemployment, dignity
and status,' he said. 'We need more mixed
method studies to take this forward.'