BRATISLAVA, Mar 07 (IPS) – This function is a part of a collection to mark Worldwide Ladies’s Day, March 8.Born and raised in a rural space in a standard Tajik household, Takhmina Haidarova managed to complete highschool with wonderful grades and needed to go to school.
“ it was obligatory for my household to provide larger training to boys, and women have been skilled to be housewives,” she says. Her dream of upper training was as a substitute changed by an organized marriage to a cousin.
“I used to be strongly towards this wedding ceremony, however my father determined for me and married me to him. I hadn’t even seen him earlier than the marriage,” she tells IPS.
She grew to become pregnant quickly after the marriage, however her husband, who had labored in Russia earlier than he wed her, left to return to his work there two months into the being pregnant. She gave beginning to a daughter, who, nonetheless, died after falling unwell a 12 months later.
Haidarova was referred to docs, who ran checks and found she had HIV.
“After I advised my husband about it, it turned out he had recognized he had HIV for a very long time and had hidden it from me,” she says.
Not lengthy after, her husband returned to Tajikistan. He was significantly unwell and was admitted to the hospital. When he died quickly after, each his and Haidarova’s households came upon they each had the illness, and the stigma and discrimination she has confronted for a few years since then started.
“None of my family communicated with me; all of them averted assembly with me,” she tells IPS. “Society usually refuses to acknowledge folks with HIV,” she says.
However Haidarova determined to take a stand towards it.
“After I came upon I used to be HIV optimistic, my life modified dramatically. I misplaced my household help, my house, my well being, and my sense of peace. It was very tough and painful. However I made a decision that I might not let this virus outline my life or the lives of different ladies.
“My husband died, and I began to work at an NGO whereas on the similar time pursuing my larger training. Proper from the beginning, I used to be open about my HIV standing and by no means hid it,” she says.
“I began serving to ladies with HIV due to my very own expertise of dwelling with the virus. I understand how tough it’s to take care of this analysis, particularly when sources and help are restricted,” she provides.
Right this moment, Haidarova is a outstanding advocate for the rights of ladies dwelling with HIV (WLHIV) in Tajikistan, heading the Tajik Community of Ladies Dwelling with HIV, primarily based within the capital, Dushanbe. The organisation conducts info campaigns, organizes group classes, and offers psychological and different help companies to WLHIV.
“Beginning a corporation to help ladies with HIV was a pure step for me. Along with different ladies, we began to battle for our rights, for entry to high quality well being care, for public training about HIV, and for help for these in the identical state of affairs. My purpose is to make life simpler for girls and women with HIV,” she says.
Thus far, she says, the work of her group and others is making some progress. Via years of decided lobbying and cooperation with the federal government, official coverage on HIV/AIDS has moved in direction of a higher recognition of the necessity to guarantee rights for folks dwelling with HIV (PLHIV)—that is particularly set out within the nation’s Nationwide HIV/AIDS Plan.
One of the crucial apparent indicators of this, HIV advocates say, is a current ruling by the Supreme Court docket.
Article 125 of Tajikistan’s Legal Code presently criminalizes HIV transmission and publicity, carrying a two-year jail sentence, which rises to as much as 5 years for transmission by somebody conscious of their standing, and as a lot as ten years when dedicated towards a number of folks or a minor. Prosecutions will be introduced towards PLHIV on the idea of only a potential risk of HIV transmission. In some instances, this may be merely the truth that somebody is HIV optimistic.
Ladies dwelling with HIV make up 70 p.c of all convictions underneath Article 125, in keeping with UNAIDS.
“WLHIV are extra usually prosecuted . As a rule, they don’t have cash for a lawyer ,” Larisa Alexandrova, an knowledgeable on HIV and human rights on the Centre for Human Rights, advised IPS.
Nonetheless, on the finish of December final 12 months, the Supreme Court docket issued a ruling on Article 125 underneath which the judicial system ought to sooner or later take note of different components aside from merely HIV standing, comparable to whether or not somebody is on antiretroviral remedy and has an undetectable viral load, condom use, and if each events are totally conscious of the opposite’s HIV standing.
Haidarova is optimistic that the ruling will carry optimistic change and believes it is a crucial first step in direction of decriminalizing the illness, which ought to assist WLHIV.
However as some HIV activists in Tajikistan advised IPS, what’s written on regulation books is one factor, and what truly occurs in observe is one other.
“There are legal guidelines on paper that assure human rights equality for folks in marginalized communities, together with ladies. However the public, the police and judiciary, and even wider society break these legal guidelines frequently,” one HIV activist who works with marginalized communities in Tajikistan advised IPS.
Individuals dwelling with HIV, particularly ladies, routinely report discrimination within the healthcare sector. Haidarova says she isn’t any stranger to such experiences.
“In 2019, docs advised me the newborn I used to be carrying was useless, and I urgently wanted to terminate the being pregnant, however the docs on the polyclinic saved me within the hallway for 2 hours and finally stated they might not carry out the process as a result of I had HIV they usually needed to refer me to a different facility. I ultimately managed to name a physician who knew me, and she or he got here and carried out the process herself.
“Then, once I gave beginning to a toddler final 12 months, when it was time for supply, I got here to the maternity hospital, they usually took me from the final maternity ward to the isolation ward. Not one of the docs would come to me, and I needed to name a physician I knew who was on trip on the time and clarify the state of affairs. She got here to ship the newborn herself. We stay within the twenty first century, when medication is so superior, however regardless of all this, ladies’s rights are violated at weak moments when they’re powerless,” she stated.
In the meantime, in wider society, points round stereotypes and prejudices about gender-based violence (GBV), partly associated to non secular beliefs among the many majority Muslim inhabitants, deepen stigma and discrimination, she says, warning that these are having a harmful impression on the unfold of the illness.
“People who find themselves in danger and in want of HIV info, counseling, and testing face obstacles to accessing applicable well being care and companies. Lots of them concern discrimination and detrimental attitudes from docs and different well being care suppliers, so they like to go with out the assistance they want,” she says.
Legislation enforcement is one other space the place WLHIV faces disproportionate discrimination. Activists say that many ladies dwelling with HIV are victims of GBV however concern reporting the assault to the police or will usually withdraw an allegation not simply out of concern of discovering themselves with out financial help—the overwhelming majority of ladies in Tajikistan are economically depending on their husbands—but in addition due to considerations that their HIV standing could also be disclosed.
Activists say that in some instances, when police attend incidents of GBV and discover the girl concerned resides with HIV, they may look to take motion towards her underneath Article 125 reasonably than examine the assault.
The discrimination and stigma ladies and others dwelling with HIV face is deterring them from accessing prevention, testing, and remedy companies and impacting efforts to deal with the illness, activists say.
Tajikistan has over 15,000 folks dwelling with HIV, however the variety of new HIV infections has elevated by 20% over the previous 10 years, and the proportion of new HIV instances amongst ladies has risen from 31% in 2011 to 36% in 2022, in keeping with UNAIDS.
Haidarova says the federal government is dedicated to strengthening rights for folks dwelling with HIV, however that extra must be carried out to teach folks about it and shield weak teams from discrimination.
As she is eager to emphasize, her personal expertise exhibits that stigma and discrimination round HIV will be overcome.
“My story is a painful one, however every part is slowly getting higher for me now. I began a household of affection—my husband is HIV detrimental, and we’ve two stunning, wholesome kids.
“I proved to my household that individuals with HIV can stay a full life, be comfortable, begin a household, and provides beginning to wholesome kids. After they came upon I wasn’t useless and that every part was wonderful with me, they quietly started to speak with me and invite me to their occasions. It took a while, however they understood that whereas HIV is horrifying, you’ll be able to stay with it,” she says.
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