Muslim groups in Tamil Nadu say no to condom machines

Yahoo: "Plans to install 500 condom vending machines in the capital city madras, of one of India's worst HIV/AIDS-affected states have angered Muslim groups so much they have taken to the streets to protest a "condom culture".

Critics of the plan by the Tamil Nadu government and India's National Aids Control Organisation to put 500 machines in Chennai and 1,000 more across the state later say it would degrade women and corrupt the young.

India has more than 5 million HIV/AIDS sufferers, second only to South Africa. But efforts to combat the spread of the disease have come up against deeply conservative traditions.

The popular south Indian actresses Suhasini and Kushbu were pelted with sandals, tomatoes and rotten eggs and hauled before a court in Tamil Nadu for saying recently it was okay for women to have sex before marriage, as long as it was safe sex, and that men should not expect their brides to be virgins.

While rejecting claims by some Muslim leaders that condoms were un-Islamic, Jawahirullah said his party would also start protests if the machines were put in place. "