Muslim clerics raise HIV/AIDS awareness

While many Kyrgyz people do not go to mosques regularly, a fair proportion still gather for Friday prayers, particularly in the more traditional south. Recognising this, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kyrgyzstan has teamed up with the State Commission on Religious Affairs and local Muslim clergy to launch a unique campaign against HIV/AIDS that aims to educate religious leaders about the disease. "Though this campaign was initiated by the government, the Muslim clergy in Kyrgyzstan realised that HIV/AIDS is a problem not for one person, but the whole nation, and that we can play a role in tackling it," Neimatulla aji Jeinbekov, deputy mufti of Kyrgyzstan, told IRIN in the capital, Bishkek. According to UNDP statistics, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the former Soviet republic is close to 600. Unofficial estimates put the number 10 times higher. While Kyrgyzstan has a low prevalence of HIV infection, a steady rise in the number of injecting drug users is increasingly making its threat felt. The largest and fastest growing high-risk group for HIV, injecting drug users are particularly prevalent in the south of the country. According to Kyrgyzstan's National AIDS Centre in Bishkek, of the HIV/AIDS cases officially reported since 1997, almost half occurred in and around Osh, a city of 400,000 and the provincial capital of Osh Oblast near Uzbekistan. The programme has been running awareness-raising workshops in most provinces since it began earlier this year, but has particularly targeted the vulnerable south. During the sessions, imams meet government officials, doctors, NGO representatives and people living with the disease. The clerics learn about the danger of HIV and how it spreads. The imams then return to their mosques and incorporate what they have learnt into sermons and other communications in the mosques, and also in community work. "It is interesting to observe that, when imams talk about AIDS and drugs, people listen very carefully to them," Manas, a 20-year-old who goes to Friday prayers at a mosque in central Bishkek, told IRIN. "I think it's a great idea. It's useful to hear openly about AIDS and drugs in mosques," said Azamat, a student at the Kyrgyz-Slavic University. "During these seminars, imams learn a lot, and then they explain these things within the context of sharia [Islamic law]. We tell people that 'zino' [having different sexual partners outside marriage] and using drugs are harmful. If a person persists with such behaviour, Allah will punish them. People understand this and, hopefully, act on it, said Neimatulla aji. "In my mosque the imam has been talking about sexual relations, saying that using prostitutes and drugs leads to AIDS and other STDs [sexually transmitted diseases] and I am deeply impressed by the fact that they are talking about such taboos," Farhad, another young man, told IRIN, in Lebedinovka village on the outskirts of Bishkek. Although the new openness in Kyrgyz mosques appeals to young people, the older generation are less impressed. "I entirely disagree that imams should talk about such issues. It is not appropriate for Muslims. It is not appropriate to sharia," one elderly man told IRIN while leaving a mosque with the aid of a stick. Some of the more conservative imams have also rejected the awareness programme, arguing that such information encourages promiscuity. But UNDP's HIV/AIDS programme said the project would continue despite the criticism from some quarters. "Our future plans are to continue our cooperation, as well as to maintain such education workshops" Ashir Chikeev, an information specialist with UNDP's AIDS programme, said.