Marriage Denial: A Phenomenological Study of Dual Stigmatization and Resistance among People Living with HIV under Bauchi State’s Mandatory Premarital Testing Regime

Marriage constitutes a fundamental social institution in Northern Nigeria, yet People Living with HIV (PLHIV) face systematic exclusion from it due to the implementation of mandatory premarital HIV testing laws. Anchored on Goffman’s stigma theory and Farmer’s concept of structural violence, this phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of 30 PLHIV navigating mandatory premarital HIV testing laws and marriage restrictions in Bauchi Metropolis, Northern Nigeria, where serodiscordant couples are effectively barred from legal marriage under the Bauchi State HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Law of 2017. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Findings revealed three dominant themes: the bureaucracy of exclusion, in which testing processes acted as gatekeeping mechanisms that denied PLHIV access to legal marriage; the stigma spiral, in which disclosure triggered compounding institutional, familial, and religious rejections; and resistance architectures, encompassing proxy testing, document falsification, and underground matchmaking networks. Participants experienced internalized shame, marriage-related post-traumatic stress, and systematic exclusion from a core social institution. The study concludes that Bauchi’s premarital HIV testing regime constitutes structural violence, violating PLHIV rights to family life and non-discrimination. Policy recommendations include repealing mandatory testing laws, implementing confidential voluntary testing protocols, and funding psychosocial support services for affected individuals.