FEATURE: The Toilet Walls Communication in the University: A Private Plea to (Re-) Address Sexuality Education? Some Reflections

Current day society is characterised by strong institutions that have tended to usurp roles previously played by other agencies. The school has emerged as a formidable institution that has slowly assumed educational roles initially   played by the family or community. Indeed, the school curriculum is seen as the perfect solution to address societal problems. There has been universal acceptance that one avenue of addressing the HIV and AIDS pandemic is by embracing preventive education. In all this, the school is viewed as the natural place to reach children in their formative years, with the hope that early awareness can offer information that will lead to the right attitudes. It is within this context that I examine the issue of toilet graffiti that is rampant in kenyata university toilets [1]. So popular is it that the university administration has taken to repainting the toilet walls periodically to "clean" them up. Given that there was no graffiti in the female toilets, this paper will analyse what was documented in Male Toilets in Kenyatta University. Graffiti could be said to have two dimensions ; first as a way of expressing   anonymously and safely an individual's sexuality and secondly a way of reinforcing conditions that affect or infringe on the realization of sexual rights in the privacy of the public toilet. Read full article.
By Sara Jerop Ruto
ISSUE IN FOCUS: Don't Be Sexy, Don't Be There: Discourses of Space, Danger and Women's Sexuality in South Africa

This article explores the fears and perceptions of rape amongst fifteen women studying or working at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa who claim to have never been raped.1 It highlights the manner in which these women draw on common discourses of women's sexuality to construct certain spaces as potentially dangerous. Thus the article aims to show that spaces are discursively constructed and sexualised, and may become dangerous for women because of socially constituted ideas about what it means for them to be present within different spaces. The article draws on feminist literature concerning rape and women's sexuality and fear to make this argument. Read full article.
By Simidele Dosekun
RESEARCH NOTES: Discontinued Intimacy, Denied Paternity

This study conducted by Maseko and Nduna explored the experiences of adolescent girls who got pregnant whilst at high school at a time when they are making strides in realising their identity through advancing educational aspirations.   According to the eight-stage theory of human development as championed by Erick Erickson emotional intimacy, achieved through among other things partnerships in sex, is an important aspect of young people's lives. Read full article.
By Nduna Mzikazi and Maseko Vella

   
   

EDITORIAL: Safety, Sexuality and Wellness: Would Uncertainty Rather Than Risk Approach Serve Better?

Here comes the last quarter of the (Gregorian) year with its characteristic heavy traffic not just on the highways, street and the skies but also sexually and emotionally. It is therefore a priority period to call for and promote safety and wellness. During this period the international community rightly marks three events related to safety and wellness: the international day of the elderly, the 16 days of activism against sexual and gender based violence and the international AIDS day. Read full article.

REGION WATCH: Addressing Sexual Harassment and Promoting Women's Safety: The Experience The Egyptian Centre For Women's Rights

ECWR is an independent non- governmental organization committed to improving women's status in Egypt and the Arab Region. This report highlight ECWR commendable effort to promote safety and sexuality ECWR designed a special multi-facetted strategy to address sexual harassment and sexual assault in Egypt. Read full article.

VIEWPOINT: Confusing Messages About Sex For Young People in the Twenty First Century

Growing up as a youth within the HIV/AIDS era must be tougher than it was before the advent of the epidemic. What with watching your friends get ill, suffer through bodily pain, social stigma, or self-induced shame and isolation? Feelings of despair and frustration as the body succumbs to different opportunistic infections, must induce a fear in the observers - whether from a distance, or nearby as carers. Read full article.
By Stella Nyanzi