Birth Control Condom Campaign to Begin in Conservative Afghanistan

Next week, the Washington-based social marketing group Population Services International (PSI) will begin radio spots, sponsorships and billboards advertising condoms for birth control in Afghanistan. Condoms are widely available in most drug stores but are little used -- and always hidden. PSI has already begun to distribute 1.6 million "Number One" condoms for sale at a subsidized one Afghani (2 U.S. cents). They will not be flavored, perfumed, textured or labeled "extra fine." With hardly a dozen officially registered HIV/AIDS cases in the nation, and women commonly expected to have five or six babies, the condom promotion is not about safe sex or fewer pregnancies but rather about better birth-spacing and lowering the high infant-mortality rate, PSI said. The U.S. Agency for International Development funded the $5 million project, which will female contraceptives and the pill, plus anti-mosquito and water purification products. The Afghan Ministry of Health has approved all for distribution.

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