On: Alcohol, sex and violence: a dangerous cocktail that makes young women...

July 20, 2026

The report lies open on my desk, and the familiar scent of a dishonest ledger rises from its pages. It speaks of “vulnerability” and “dangerous cocktails,” attributing the spread of HIV among young women to the consumption of alcohol and the choices of the victims. This is the old, tired rhythm of the pretext.

Let us look at the record. In the Sub-Saharan districts cited, the infection rates among women aged fifteen to twenty-four are consistently three to five times higher than among their male peers. The report lists “alcohol use” as a primary driver in sixty percent of the cases studied in the southern provinces this year. But when we look closer at the testimonies, the alcohol is not the cause; it is the tool of the aggressor or the desperate sedative of the starving.

The stated reason for the infection is “risky behavior.” The actual reason is the systematic deprivation that makes transactional sex the only currency for school fees, and the lack of legal protection that makes coercion a daily occurrence without consequence. We are told the “cocktail” of sex and drink is the problem. This is a lie designed to shift the burden of proof onto the bodies of the afflicted.

If the alcohol were removed tomorrow, the power imbalance would remain. The virus does not seek out the tavern; it follows the path of least resistance carved by poverty and the unchecked violence of men who face no court. To blame the drink is to ignore the hand that pours it and the system that ensures the glass is the only thing the girl has to hold. We must stop documenting the “vulnerability” of women and start documenting the impunity of their predators. The data shows no change in the outcome because the cause - institutionalized inequality - has not been touched.