veiled4allah

AIDS prevention in Iran

Knight-Ridder reports on advances Iran is making in AIDS prevention:

Iran's fight against the spread of HIV hinges on a delicate give-and-take between activists who talk frankly about sex and drugs and the ruling ayatollahs, who fiercely protect the Islamic Republic's puritan image. The combination has made Iran the Middle East leader in preventing HIV and AIDS. The country's program, which melds deep-rooted religious values with cutting-edge research, is being exported to Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Pakistan and other Muslim nations. "I told my colleagues in the United Arab Emirates, `You're not more rigid than us. We're the only country in the world where it's the law to wear a head scarf, where it's a pure Islamic government, where you can't drink,'" said Dr. Arash Alaei, one of Iran's most respected AIDS researchers. "`If we have a prevention program, why don't you?'" In a region where other Muslim governments ignore the epidemic, quarantine HIV-infected people or preach abstinence as the only solution, Iran's approach is especially remarkable. It still doles out floggings to Iranians caught with alcohol, but it gives clean syringes and methadone treatment to heroin addicts. Health workers pass out condoms to prostitutes. Government clinics in every region offer free HIV testing, counseling and treatment. A state-backed magazine just began a monthly column that profiles HIV-positive Iranians, and last year the postal service unveiled a stamp emblazoned with a red ribbon for AIDS awareness. This year the government will devote an estimated $30 million to the program. One of Iran's most acclaimed advances comes from its notoriously secretive network of prisons, where hundreds of drug-addicted inmates sometimes share the same makeshift syringe to inject heroin smuggled in by guards or visiting relatives. In a startling acknowledgment of sex and drugs even in its most closely guarded quarters, the Tehran administration has made condoms and needles available in detention centers across the country. "Iran now has one of the best prison programs for HIV in not just the region, but in the world," said Dr. Hamid Setayesh, the coordinator for the U.N. AIDS office in Tehran. "They're passing out condoms and syringes in prisons. This is unbelievable. In the whole world, there aren't more than six or seven countries doing that."

Inshallah, these ideas and techniques can be used in other Muslim countries to help reduce the prevalence of AIDS.

World AIDS Day

For World AIDS Day, here are some posts about Muslims and HIV/AIDS: Muslims and HIV/AIDS #1 - If Allah accepts repentance, why don't we? Why do some Muslims ostracize people for what they did in the past? Muslims and HIV/AIDS #2 - As a follow up to the previous entry, another personal story of how a diagnosis of HIV led a man to turn his life around. Is this what you want to shun? Muslims and HIV/AIDS #3 - Islamic teachings that can form the basis of a compassionate response. Muslims and HIV/AIDS #4 - Concentrating on prevention strategies.

World AIDS Day

For World AIDS Day, here are some posts about Muslims and HIV/AIDS: Muslims and HIV/AIDS #1 - If Allah accepts repentance, why don't we? Why do some Muslims ostracize people for what they did in the past? Muslims and HIV/AIDS #2 - As a follow up to the previous entry, another personal story of how a diagnosis of HIV led a man to turn his life around. Is this what you want to shun? Muslims and HIV/AIDS #3 - Islamic teachings that can form the basis of a compassionate response. Muslims and HIV/AIDS #4 - Concentrating on prevention strategies.

World AIDS Day

A year ago today, I posted four entries for World AIDS Day, which I'm linking to today: Muslims and HIV/AIDS #1 - If Allah accepts repentance, why don't we? Why do some Muslims ostracize people for what they did in the past? Muslims and HIV/AIDS #2 - As a follow up to the previous entry, another personal story of how a diagnosis of HIV led a man to turn his life around. Is this what you want to shun? Muslims and HIV/AIDS #3 - Islamic teachings that can form the basis of a compassionate response. Muslims and HIV/AIDS #4 - Concentrating on prevention strategies.

Muslims and HIV/AIDS #4

In my previous three posts about Muslims and HIV/AIDS I stressed the importance of compassion to those who have been diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. Allah SWT will forgive any sin that is sincerely repented for and we should strive also to show mercy and kindness to those who are struggling both with AIDS and with trying to lead an upright life according to the tenets of Islam.

But we also need to look at the aspect of prevention. Among the major risk factors for infection are sexual promiscuity (heterosexual as well as homosexual) and intravenous drug use.

Islam commands believers to follow a rule of chastity, which means celibacy outside of marriage, and fidelity in it. The Islamic social code is set up to make it easier for us to follow this strict rule by limiting the avenues of temptation. By observing modest dress and by avoiding privacy, unnecessary physical contact, and intimate conversations with members of the opposite sex that we are not married or related to, inshallah we will find it easier to uphold the rule of chastity.

Another thing that Islam prohibits is all forms of intoxicants, both alcohol and drugs.

By following these rules ourselves and by encouraging others to follow them as well we can, by permission of Allah SWT, put the brakes on the spread of AIDS into Muslim communities.

Here are two articles about this, one from an Islamic scholar and one from a Muslim doctor.

Muslims and HIV/AIDS #3

Here are some suggested guidelines for how Muslims should deal with other Muslims who have HIV or AIDS. It's taken from An African-American Muslim Perspective on AIDS by Amir al-Islam. The article also contains a brief overview of the AIDS pandemic, and of the history of Islam in America.

I believe that we can establish a modality in which Muslims can engage in the struggle to rid the world of the scourge of AIDS, while maintaining their religious and moral world view, and not compromise their religious beliefs. This "paradigm of engagement," however, must be deeply ensconced in the traditions and ethical teachings of Islam and operate within the Islamic conceptual framework. First, I argue that it is impossible for a Muslim to discuss AIDS outside of the framework of moral and ethical behavior. In other words, people in the secular world should not expect Muslims to think or operate outside of their religious and spiritual value system, because it is precisely this value system that determines their identity, self-concept and world view, i.e. who they are and what they believe. So, it is within the Islamic framework that I propose the following: 1) That Muslims deal with the person with AIDS as a fellow human being who is ill and draw from the sources of the Holy Quran, which focuses on Allah's mercy and forgiveness: Say, O my servants who have transgressed against their souls; despair not of the mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is oft-forgiving, most merciful. (Ibid. 39-53) 2) That Muslims reflect on the essence of Allah's message, which commands them to help those that are less fortunate. 3) That Muslims become advocates in support of more health care and medicines, and education, particularly for African Americans who are witnessing an increase in HIV infections. That they remember the famous words of their Prophet Muhammad who stated: I heard the Messenger of Allah saying: He who amongst you sees something abominable should modify it with the help of his hand- and if he has not strength enough to do it, then he should do it with his tongue (speak out against it) and if he has not strength enough to do it, then he should hate it in his heart, and that is the weakest of faith. (Hadith 365, reported by Abu Sa'id al_khudri) 4) That Muslims support and become advocates for an increase in funds for HIV/AIDS research. This is supported by the teachings of Islam which state: It was reported that the Prophet said: "Verily, Allah has not let any malady occur without providing its remedy. Therefore seek medical treatment for your illnesses." (Hadith reported by Anas ibn Mas'ud and documented by Ibn Majah) 5) That Muslims provide education for the Muslim community about ADDS, so that in the event that non-Muslim members of their families are infected, they will know how to care for them. 6) That Muslims develop strategies to care for members of their congregations that are infected but may be too embarrassed to come forward. 7) That Muslims remember what the Quran says about Prophet Muhammad and mercy: "We have sent you O Muhammad as a mercy to the worlds. "

Muslims and HIV/AIDS #2

Here is an excellent story about a man who was diagnosed with HIV. He decided to re-evaluate his life and beliefs and ended up converting to Islam. You can read his story at: Living With AIDS. Here is an excerpt:

He adds that since Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, one can expect people from all walks of life to accept it, be they prostitutes or drug users, or people who were sexually promiscuous. "Surely we cannot tell them that they cannot become Muslims and close the doors of our mosques to them?" he asks. What about his own future? "Well I see my future as any other Muslim does," he says. "I don't know when and how I will die." "I have been HIV positive for 10 to 11 years, and I have not yet been diagnosed with AIDS," he says. "I might never die of AIDS. The fact that all things happen for a reason in the life of a Muslim, gives him the feeling that he is safe under the Protection of Allah, he says. "I believe that, it was through being diagnosed with the virus, that I started to look closely at the things Allah Wants me to do," he says. There is a purpose for all things, he says, and perhaps this virus reached him, because there was no support out there for Muslims who are in the same position as him. "What I am trying to say is that if Allah Gives you something He will not Harm you as long as you do the right thing with it." His condition does not make him feel despondent. "HIV saved my life once," he says, explaining that if he had not been diagnosed with the virus, he might never have accepted Islam. He lives each day as if it will be his last. "But then again that is how it should be for all Muslims."

Muslims and HIV/AIDS #1

I found a moving story on the web by a revert sister who has HIV. I think it's really a good reminder and test for us all. You can read the whole story at For Every Sickness, There Is A Cure - Even HIV.

We were talking about people with terminal diseases, and so forth. I asked, "What about a person with HIV (not even full blown Aids)?" Their responses were so unenlightened that I asked them where they had gotten their information. It was like talking to people that believed in every stereotype and myth that they had ever heard of. They said they wouldn't hug the person, or wouldn't let them around their kids because they were afraid they might breathe on them (since no one knows how the illness is spread). They also said that the person would have to be gay. I then asked, "But what if someone you knew were raped and contracted it that way?" Their answers were still the same. In essence, they would cut off all communication. And these are Muslims - I am not speaking of the Kufar. They had no mercy, and because of that, I spent another year in isolation before a sister from South Bronx befriended me. When she asked me why I wasn't married, I broke down and cried so hard that she could see that I was suffocating from grief. After I made her swear not to tell anyone, I told her. She cried too, and said that it was okay. She reminded me that the only judge was Allah (SWT) and asked me to come back to the masjid. She also recommended that I make Tawbah (repent and seek forgiveness) from Allah, and encouraged me not to stop taking my worries to Allah, particularly at night, because in reality, He was my only friend.