With Full Support of the Sharia Council

In societies where sex before marriage is absolutely taboo, information campaigns about HIV/AIDS are difficult to handle – like in Indonesia, for example. But with the help of Muslim clerics, campaigns can address the issues in a sensitive way, as Vidi-Athena Legowo reports from Aceh

"Aceh has changed a great deal since the tsunami catastrophe. A lot of people come to Aceh now, and the society is changing. The likelihood that the changes will lead to a higher number of HIV infections is high," says Medya Yulizar, a doctor working with HIV and AIDS patients in Banda Aceh.

Yulizar is worried about her home. Before the tsunami, there was only one HIV-positive patient in Aceh, and now there are four. Yulizar and the Banda Aceh AIDS Committee are working with UNICEF to stop HIV/AIDS from passing on any further. Coordinated by UNAIDS, UNICEF mainly concentrates on cases where the virus is passed from mothers to their children, but the organisation also carries out information campaigns. One of the UNICEF project managers is Doctor Budhi Setiawan:

"Aceh is not as isolated as it used to be"

"I think HIV is like the world's other infectious diseases, such as malaria or dengue fever, which are also becoming more widespread because of globalisation. Aceh is not as isolated as it used to be. And since all the aid organisations have been here, we've had a better registration of the AIDS cases."

UNICEF and the AIDS Committee work with other institutions in Aceh, for example for seminars, which are held regularly by the local religious affairs offices.

It's a seminar for couples who want to get married and couples who have recently married, but the men and women are not sitting next to each other. The seats in the office of religious affairs are arranged so that all the women sit on the left-hand side of the room and all the men on the right. Aceh abides by Islamic law, Sharia.

Men and women who are not blood relatives or married to each other are not allowed to touch each other. Separated into right and left, the couples are given advice and prepared for married life by the office of religious affairs. The seminar deals with reproduction, pregnancy, and how important breastfeeding is for newborn babies, but until recently no one talked about HIV and AIDS here. In Aceh, like in the whole of Indonesia, sexual education is still a taboo for most people. And how can people talk about HIV and AIDS without talking about sex?

Sex education slide show

"It wasn't easy to start with. But all of us on the AIDS Committee come from Aceh ourselves, we know the customs, the reservations, and we accept them. We can't prevent them."

Today Yulizar's job is to tell the young couples about the risks of HIV/AIDS. Her slideshow was developed in conjunction with UNICEF, which sponsors many seminars of this type. Like the seating arrangements, the seminar is also adapted to Sharia: Yulizar doesn't show or tell anything that might be offensive, such as models of sexual organs, naked bodies or condoms.

Around ten couples watch her slideshow with great interest. One of those in the audience is Cut Yuliana. She is 22 years old, has been married for three days and says that everyone who turns up here gets money from the religious affairs office. Seventy thousand rupiah per person, she says. Although the seminar is supposed to be obligatory for all couples, the participation is not overwhelming. But Cut says she'd come even without the money.

"AIDS is to do with sex. It's better to know about it from the very beginning. It's a deadly disease that you have to watch out for. And even if you're married, your husband still might be unfaithful. But if we know our partner really well we don't have to be too mistrustful."

Clearing up misunderstandings

Mistrust is not only important for partners. Some types of contraception can also cause problems at times. The AIDS Committee repeatedly emphasises that condoms are the best method of protecting oneself from AIDS. But for some, this recommendation is going too far.

Kardi from the Religious Council of Sharia Islam attends every AIDS seminar in Aceh to clear up any misunderstandings:

"The people here think that using condoms justifies extramarital sex. That is wrong, of course. We have to explain first of all at all the seminars that a condom is just one of many types of contraception. We want to prevent people using condoms to legitimise unfaithfulness."

Introducing AIDS campaigns into schools

Integrating the Sharia into every seminar is perhaps the best thing AIDS workers can do in Aceh. UNICEF has held seminars on HIV, AIDS and their consequences for over 600 religious advisors and 60 religious leaders, in the hope that the information will be passed on to the communities. It is also important to integrate local people into the educational programmes and let them put the material together themselves. This makes the acceptance of the campaigns by the local population far higher.

It has been a long and stony road, but UNICEF and the AIDS Committee now have the full support of the Sharia Council, religious advisors and religious leaders. UNICEF's next target is to introduce AIDS campaigns into schools. They are currently working with several educational services on a slogan competition for pupils at middle and high schools. UNICEF also holds basic seminars on the subject for teachers. And it is important to continue the campaigns in the future, says Budhi Setiawan from UNICEF:

"HIV is not a temporary phenomenon like the tsunami. We have to pool all our energies to tackle the problem."

Vidi-Athena Legowo

Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire

Qantara.de

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