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 college.
“ it was obligatory for my household to provide greater training to boys, and ladies have been educated 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 marriage 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 turned 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, nevertheless, died after falling unwell a 12 months later.
Haidarova was referred to medical doctors, who ran assessments and found she had HIV.
“After I informed 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 severely 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 basically refuses to acknowledge individuals 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 residence, my well being, and my sense of peace. It was very tough and painful. However I made a decision that I’d not let this virus outline my life or the lives of different girls.
“My husband died, and I began to work at an NGO whereas on the similar time pursuing my greater 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 girls with HIV due to my very own expertise of residing with the virus. I understand how tough it’s to cope with this analysis, particularly when sources and help are restricted,” she provides.
At the moment, Haidarova is a outstanding advocate for the rights of girls residing with HIV (WLHIV) in Tajikistan, heading the Tajik Community of Ladies Residing with HIV, primarily based within the capital, Dushanbe. The organisation conducts info campaigns, organizes group classes, and gives psychological and different help companies to WLHIV.
“Beginning a corporation to help girls with HIV was a pure step for me. Along with different girls, we began to combat for our rights, for entry to high quality well being care, for public training about HIV, and for help for these in the identical scenario. My aim is to make life simpler for girls and ladies with HIV,” she says.
To date, she says, the work of her group and others is making some progress. By means of years of decided lobbying and cooperation with the federal government, official coverage on HIV/AIDS has moved in the direction of a larger recognition of the necessity to guarantee rights for individuals residing with HIV (PLHIV)—that is particularly set out within the nation’s Nationwide HIV/AIDS Plan.
One of the vital apparent indicators of this, HIV advocates say, is a current ruling by the Supreme Courtroom.
Article 125 of Tajikistan’s Felony Code at present 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 individuals or a minor. Prosecutions will be introduced towards PLHIV on the idea of only a potential menace of HIV transmission. In some instances, this may be merely the truth that somebody is HIV optimistic.
Ladies residing with HIV make up 70 % of all convictions beneath Article 125, based on UNAIDS.
“WLHIV are extra typically 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, informed IPS.
Nonetheless, on the finish of December final 12 months, the Supreme Courtroom issued a ruling on Article 125 beneath which the judicial system ought to sooner or later keep in mind different components aside from merely HIV standing, similar 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 convey optimistic change and believes it is a vital first step in the direction of decriminalizing the illness, which ought to assist WLHIV.
However as some HIV activists in Tajikistan informed IPS, what’s written on legislation books is one factor, and what truly occurs in follow is one other.
“There are legal guidelines on paper that assure human rights equality for individuals in marginalized communities, together with girls. 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 informed IPS.
Individuals residing with HIV, particularly girls, routinely report discrimination within the healthcare sector. Haidarova says she isn’t any stranger to such experiences.
“In 2019, medical doctors informed me the newborn I used to be carrying was lifeless, and I urgently wanted to terminate the being pregnant, however the medical doctors on the polyclinic saved me within the hallway for 2 hours and ultimately mentioned they’d not carry out the process as a result of I had HIV they usually needed to refer me to a different facility. I finally managed to name a health care provider who knew me, and he or she got here and carried out the process herself.
“Then, after 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 overall maternity ward to the isolation ward. Not one of the medical doctors would come to me, and I needed to name a health care provider I knew who was on trip on the time and clarify the scenario. She got here to ship the newborn herself. We dwell within the twenty first century, when drugs is so superior, however regardless of all this, girls’s rights are violated at susceptible moments when they’re powerless,” she mentioned.
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 influence 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 acceptable well being care and companies. A lot of them concern discrimination and unfavorable attitudes from medical doctors 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 residing with HIV are victims of GBV however concern reporting the assault to the police or will typically withdraw an allegation not simply out of concern of discovering themselves with out financial help—the overwhelming majority of girls 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 lady concerned resides with HIV, they are going to look to take motion towards her beneath Article 125 reasonably than examine the assault.
The discrimination and stigma girls and others residing 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 individuals residing with HIV, however the variety of new HIV infections has elevated by 20% over the previous 10 years, and the share of new HIV instances amongst girls has risen from 31% in 2011 to 36% in 2022, based on UNAIDS.
Haidarova says the federal government is dedicated to strengthening rights for individuals residing with HIV, however that extra must be carried out to coach individuals about it and shield susceptible 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 thing is slowly getting higher for me now. I began a household of affection—my husband is HIV unfavorable, and we have now two lovely, wholesome youngsters.
“I proved to my household that folks with HIV can dwell a full life, be joyful, begin a household, and provides beginning to wholesome youngsters. After they came upon I wasn’t lifeless and that every thing was effective 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 may dwell with it,” she says.
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