Leprosy in biblical times was a stigmatised skin disease. It was not an easily recognisable skin disease because any skin disease was suspected of being leprosy . However leprosy as a skin disease could not be hidden , because it showed quite easily . People who had contracted leprosy were considered impure and unclean and were cast out of society. Today however, we have a cure for people with leprosy and it is not considered a terminal disease. However, we have indeed an incurable disease, namely AIDS. My question is, how do we consider people with AIDS today, especially women. Are they being treated as unclean, even though we cannot see the disease, or are they also the outcasts of our society today? My guess is that women are the victims today, as much as they were in biblical times, rather than the perpetrators. Women living with AIDS today is what motivated me to investigate the ancient biblical times to see how women at that time coped with an incurable disease in a society that treated them as outcasts. Thus , my study will focus on women with leprosy in ancient biblical times , but also will include a section on women with AIDS today for the sake of relevance.

Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.