What is Absuma?

Ethiopia, an old country beyond all imaginations, has culture and traditions dating back over 3000 years, with over 80 different ethnic groups, with their own language, culture norms, customs, beliefs, and traditions. In the country there are a number of both good and harmful traditional practices. Depending on the custom, culture, norms, and of the societies, the harmful traditional practices differ from region to region. In this post I will try to offer you a general picture of one of the oldest regions in Ethiopia, Afar. It is one of the regional states of the country found 700 km far in the north east of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. In the Afar region there are some harmful traditional practices which have been exercised since many years back. Female genital mutilation and Absuma are considered to be the major traditional practices which are being widely exercised in the region. Today we will focusour discussion on “Absuma”

Absuma is a type of marriage that usually happens between relatives. In the region, marriage between child sisters or brothers is common because of the culture of Absuma. The question of love is not necessary in the case of Abusuma, because whether they love each other or not they have to perform marriage by the interest of the boy, because the culture allowed them do so. It is a in the culture, so it is an obligation to get married for a girl in “Absuma”, and if she rejects the marriage the boy has all the right to do anything he believes is just; he may wait for her in the forest and rape her. Because of the culture, the boy will never been asked by the law, therefore nobody will care about the psychological and physical problem of the girl. In addition to the entire problem she has faced she will be forced to get married with the pain.  The culture also favors the boys. The guy has all the right to marry his wife’s sister if his wife is dead.

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The information that youth have about HIV/AIDS has to be given much consideration. Most boys are usually telling us they have enough knowledge about the use of condoms and many of them are confident they can use condoms properly. But the reality which we are currently observing in our community is completely different. Most of them usually have sexual intercourse with their opposite sex partner for the first couple of months using condoms, and then they completely give up using condoms because they believe that they are free from HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases. They think that they know each other very well and there is no longer the need to use condoms.

I had an interview with some boys and girls to learn the reason why they overlook using condoms after some period of time having sexual intercourse. Most of the interviewees confidently replied that the time they spent with their friends helped them to know and love each other very well and they consider the time is enough to be familiar with each other so it is not necessary for them to use condom.

Most young people who are ready for sexual intercourse make use of condoma not to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases, rather they use it only for the period of getting to know each other.

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• The pregnancy is occurred due to rape or sexual intercourse between relatives
• The pregnancy is dangerous to the woman or fetus health.
• The fetus has been deformed and assured by medical checkup, and
• The woman is either mentally or physically disabled, or if she is too young to give birth, and unable to have the mental preparedness to feed and handle child care.

Medical advancement comes up with lots of immediate treatment alternatives to tackle accidental circumstances, undesired and/or hazardous matters happen to us. Emergency pills are the most relevant quick remedies among these medical urgent solutions. Such pills are devised for treatment of unwanted and unplanned pregnancy if taken within 3 days or 72 hours of unsafe sexual intercourse.

Emergency pills are also important, if a woman has unsafe sexual intercourse, improper use of condom, forgetting contraceptive pills, raped or and face pregnancy.

For whom Emergency pills should be given?

1. If a woman has sexual intercourse with a man without contraceptive methods.

2. If a condom is torn out during sexual intercourse or improper use of condom.

3.  If a woman forget contraceptive pills and does sex

4. If a woman is being raped and /or does sex pre-maturely

                          How to use emergency pills?                                  

If there is unplanned or un-programmed sexual intercourse, emergency pills should be taken immediately as much as possible within 72 hours (3days). This enables a woman not to conceive a child in abrupt.  However, emergency pills are ineffective if they are taken after 72 hours of sexual intercourse. It is unadvisable to take emergency pills as usual contraceptive methods. Emergency pills are justified and used only for protecting pregnancy but it is not a means for abortion. “If a woman is using emergency pills, she has 80% chance of not having pregnancy, ” Family Guidance Association Guideline 2007, p.252).

Most women in our country are using emergency pills as usual contraceptive pills and this may expose them for unwanted pregnancy. Thus there need to be a shift in awareness and caution to use emergency pills properly in different way from the usual contraceptive pills.

• The right to get reproductive health information
• The right to get reproductive health services disregard of sex, color, residence and distance.
• The right to decide to use family planning services and to choose the methods.
• The right to get safe and reliable service.
• The right to medical and advice service
• The right to secrecy.
• The right to get service with honor, kindness and good discipline.
• The right to get reproductive health services without any restraint.
• The right to get continued service.
• The right to give comments and suggestions on the services given and to inform encountered problems to the concerned body.
• The right to choose physician (a male or female).
• The right to get reproductive services free of charge.
• The right to live in a non-polluted and suitable place.

Fistula is one of the major reproductive health problems in Ethiopia. It has been historical particularly in rural areas. Fistula literally means an unnatural opening between the internal and external part of the womb.

Here are some causes of fistula:

. Circumcision

. Unsafe and traditional abortion

. Rape

. Early marriage and pregnancy at an early age

. Long time labor with out medical support 

Region wise, most of fistula patients live in rural areas. The figure goes up to 5000-8000 patients in one region on average. This is because of low awareness and biased attitude towards the disease. Stigma and discrimination is very common for women who suffer from fistula, because many believe that they are cursed and that it’s associated with bad spirits that will affect other people. Thus, the real cause of the disease is not understood clearly and many believe this misconception because the proper education is not given. People put low attention to traditional practices related to fistula and the disease remains to prevail. Girls aged 9-11 years old are the most affected group in Ethiopia, mainly due to forced early marriage.

There are many complicated problems associated to fistula.  The major ones are:

1. severe vaginal infection
2. unable to control urine and faces
3. bad smell and distressing odor
4. loss of physical strength to perform the day to day tasks, learning, etc.  

The good news is that we can prevent fistula.  Here’s how: 

-creating public awareness about the cause, the consequences and the nature of the disease;

-working on the elimination of harmful practices embedded in the society, especially practices related to sexual and reproductive health problems;

-promoting know-how and creating access to medical centers.

In our country, most of the students are committed to achieving their goals. They join school and after 7th and 8^th grade at the time of their adolescence period, many engage in sexual activity.   In Ethiopia, young women often get pregnant and have to withdraw from school, because they engaged in unprotected sex.  Since youth do not have access to information about prevention of unintended pregnancies, STIs, and HIV/AIDS, they are no longer able to achieve their goals and their commitment to schools ends there. In the meantime, they will contract different sexually transmitted infections. Particularly, students are the most exposed to such problems. In general, they have to secure and need to protect themselves from the following problems:

1. Unwanted pregnancy
2. Abortion
3. Withdrawal from school because of pregnancy
4. Exposure to HIV/AIDS or any other sexual transmitted disease
5. Trauma from consequences of unprotected sex

All youth deserve the right to have respect for their needs.  Youth should be provided the support to live without fear and discrimination in every aspect of their lives.  This means that society needs to respect us, throughout all processes of our decisions, whether it’s respect for our feelings or our actions.  Youth want positive and accurate information, so that we can make healthy choices about how to live our lives. We should have programs that provide support for youth to help us make decisions with confidence and the belief that we are building a better future for ourselves. We need the freedom to talk about and express our sexuality in a way that is positive and healthy.  Society needs to allow us, the youth, the space to share our ideas and views.  If this happens, we will be able to respect ourselves and respect other people.

I’m a member of the Ethiopian youth Council for Higher Opportunities (ECHO), supported by Advocates for Youth and Talent Youth Association. Our council’s work is devoted to addressing the needs of young people’s reproductive and sexual health in Ethiopia.  You’ll hear more from me on Amplify and I can’t wait to read comments and blogs from you all too!

Women are at a much greater risk at an earlier age, because of both biological and cultural factors. Young women in Ethiopia are more vulnerable to HIV than men because of early age of sexual debut, early marriage, sexual abuse and violence such as rape and abduction. Adolescent girls are also unlikely to have had any training or experience in sexual negotiation skills, and are especially vulnerable in situations with older men where age, wealth, physical strength and other power dynamics put them at a disadvantage.

Adolescent girls age 15 to 24 are especially vulnerable to HIV infection the number of HIV positive women in the 15 to 19 year old age group is much higher than the number of HIV positive men in the same age group (HIV/ AIDS PREVENTION AND CONTROLLING REPORT).

Nowadays this problem has a little change, especially in the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. Sexual and Reproductive Health associations prepare awareness raising, life skill training and first give for women by any thing. However, in Ethiopia we haven't seen that much change, so we need to make a stronger effort to network for positive change.