E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2 page 35 132. In other cases, official representatives of the religious hierarchy condemn abortion or the use of contraception, including where women are raped or exposed to rape in situations of armed conflict.187 133. Traditional practices are interlinked and even exacerbated by the influence of several factors against the backdrop of a dangerous and reactionary perception of the place of women in society and within the family. Violence, for example, can constitute an obstacle to family planning. In Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ghana, Peru and Mexico, women are reportedly often forced to hide their contraceptive pills because they are terrified of the violent consequences that would ensue from their husband’s discovery that he was no longer in control of his wife’s fertility.188 (i) Levirate 134. The practice of levirate is founded on mythology of Jewish origin according to which, if a man dies with no male ascendant, his widow cannot marry outside the family and must take as her husband her brother-in-law (the deceased’s brother, or levir in Latin). The eldest male child of that union is then regarded as the son of the deceased, whose name he will bear and who will be his legal heir.189 135. Levirate, a custom which also existed among the Hittites and Assyrians, seems to be practised in countries with very different religious traditions, such as, for example, the Congo (E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/17, para. 66), Burkina Faso, where the practice has since been banned (A/55/38 (Part I), para. 245), Kenya, Chad and Cameroon.190 In these countries, levirate is reported as harmful to women’s health by encouraging the transmission of HIV/AIDS.191 It can also infringe women’s right of free consent in regard to marriage and may even be considered a latent form of forced marriage. 136. A practice similar to levirate and prevalent in Senegal in particular but also among Sioux tribes is sororate, according to which the unmarried sister of a deceased woman is forced to marry her dead sister’s husband. Like levirate, this practice has the advantage of bringing together young women linked by blood ties within the same conjugal family and of strengthening family bonds but, as with levirate, it can be injurious to the status of women and especially to their health, in particular if the deceased man or woman has died of AIDS.192 2. Discrimination in matters of nationality 137. In many States, mothers cannot pass on their nationality to their children in the same way that fathers can, even though this is a fundamental right to be enjoyed by men and women equally.193 This issue, which reflects a restrictive view of women’s legal status, has, as has been seen, formed one of the main subjects of the reservations made to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, primarily by Muslim countries (see paragraph 74 above). 3. Giving of evidence 138. In some religious cultures, in particular monotheistic cultures, religious texts have been interpreted as limiting the worth of female testimony. There is no doubt that religious precepts can seem discriminatory when taken out of context.194 It must, however, be borne in mind that religion—specifically Islam—put an end to practices which wholly excluded women from giving