INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL POLICY AND UNDERSTANDING POLICY BRIEF 43151 Dalcoma Road, Suite 6 Clinton Township Michigan 48038 586-416-1150 www.ispu.org Policy Brief # Page 1 Mohamed Yunus Rafiq - Anthropology - Writing Sample T he HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Muslim Africa: Tanzania as a Case Study M ohamed Yunus Rafiq ISPU Fellow "Muslims are n ot exempt from th e d evastating effects of HIV/AIDS " Introduction According to the UNAIDS' 2008 report on the global AIDS epidemic, there are 33 million people living with AIDS; 67% of them reside in sub-Saharan Africa and 59% of that group are women (UNAIDS 2008). Despite its relatively low prevalence in Muslim countries, Muslims are not exempt from the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS 2007 and Iliffe 2006). Much of the existing literature on AIDS epidemiology emphasizes that the reactions of Islamic countries and religious institutions to the HIV/AIDS epidemic have been characterized by stigma, denial, silence, and inactivity (Maolidi 2003a, IRIN 2006, Positive Muslims 2004, UNAIDS 2007, Iliffe 2006, and Lenton 1997). Tanzanian Muslims' reactions to the epidemic are consonant with these trends. Like much of the Muslims' response 1 globally, Tanzanian Muslims and their institutions have generally been silent about the disease's existence in the midst of their communities. Moreover, those responses that are generated tend to stigmatize the victims or offer solutions that are not economically or politically feasible, such as curbing the flow of tourists, banning bars and alcohol, or quarantining AIDS victims (Maolidi 2003, Reuters 2006, Kaiser network 2006). As a disease and a social reality, AIDS continues to be conceptualized and constructed within moral and theological frames that selectively appropriate texts in order to cast it as a punishment and curse from Allah (Maolidi 2003a and IRIN 2006). Furthermore, according to a 2003 survey of Muslims institutions in Dar es Salaam, mosques were found to offer no HIV/AIDS educational programs or any psychological or counseling services (Maolidi 2003a). One consequence of this lack of institutional and social support is that vulnerable populations, such as widows and orphans, have turned to petty trade and, in some cases, prostitution to acquire daily subsistence (Maolidi 2003 and Iliffe 2006). In many cases, incidences of begging have increased (Ibid). The Muslim Leaders' Response Even within this atmosphere marked by silence and denial, however, some Muslim clerics, 38 December 2009