Review
More than 14 million women will be infected by AIDS by the year 2000 acco rding to the World Health Organization, and the proportion of women among those newly infect ed is rising everywhere in the world. In Women In The Time Of AIDS, Gillian Paterson brings home the faces and experiences behind this alarming statistic. From the villages of Uganda, where coffin makers and undertakers have a booming business, to the shanty towns of Argentina whe re unemployment, drugs and sex fuel the epidemic, to villages in India where sexual "miseducatio n" poses a major threat, women cry out with stories of oppression and helplessness. As they begin to name their own experience and describe and own their sexuality, they show how the deadly effects of capitalism and patriarch, together, must be countered by both women and by the churches to meet the challenge of the disease that some still insist is of no concern to those who are not homosexual or drug users. >From conversations with women around the world, messages on billboards, a n analysis of popular women's magazines in Brazil, descriptions of sexual taboos in Asia, Women In The Time Of AIDS uses frank talk and chilling detail to show the myriad ways cultures deva lue women and women's experience and contribute to the spread of AIDS. Not hesitating to name t he hypocrisy of the church, Paterson challenges churches lovingly and compassionately to acce pt and support women (particularly those affected by AIDS) as Jesus would have done, and in fa ct did to with the equalling frightening and lethal scourge of leprosy in His day. Women In The Time O f AIDS is essential reading for all those involved in international health and global develop ment, particularly in the churches. -- Midwest Book Review
