No Regrets For Releasing HIV/AIDS Prevalence Report: Lire

The chairlady was reacting to the condemnation from other Muslim men after her organization released the report saying 200 out of its 1000 members are HIV/AIDS positive.

“I don’t have any regrets that a lot of people were criticizing our report because I knew what I was talking about. And I am happy that Musanet’s objective of ‘breaking the silence’ is now being achieved. We want people to talk,” sister Lire told Malawi Muslim Official Website after their monthly general meeting on Sunday.

“You know, this kind of habit is what it is killing us. People don’t want to accept that this disease is also affecting us Muslims. If you look at the Malawi’s 2005 HIV/AIDS report, you will see that Islam is on top. So should we still be quite?” asked the chairlady.

The report which was presented at Moslem Women meeting held at Mzuzu Islamic Bureau on 22^nd May 2010 shows that Islam and Seventh Day Adventist/Baptist are grabbing the lion’s share with 14.4% in lead. By ethnicity, Lomwes are leading the group with 19.0% seconded by Yaos with 15.1%.

According to the report, stigma and discrimination, lack of dialogue/culture of silence among partners, multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships are some of the contributing factors that lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Malawi.