Author: Nargis Hamrabaeva, Tajikistan
A Tadjik girl Nozanin was diagnosed with HIV after her husband-migrant returned home a few years ago. As the man has found it out, he walked out on her… Now the 40-year-old woman is happily married again.
Everything was like a fairy tale
“It happened unexpectedly, like in a fairy tale. Once I was taking care of the household, when my friend, who liked me, called. He said that he would come with a mullah (a clergyman conducting the wedding ceremony according to the Muslim canons – editor’s note) and some of our colleagues. They really came. After the religious wedding ceremony, we went to his parents,” Nozanin is saying.
This friend turned out to be a client of the Republican Network of Women Living with HIV, where Nozanin has been working. He was also HIV positive. He wanted to marry a woman with the same status and Nozanin somehow even tried to find him a suitable candidate. It turned out that the man was already in love with her…
“I never thought that I could ever get married again, especially having HIV status,” she says.
Today Nozanin considers herself to be a happy woman. Together with her husband they have a lot of plans and ideas, and they also want to give birth to a healthy child. Many couples living with HIV have the same desire.
A marriage contract is not needed
700 people in Tajikistan receive support from the Republican Network of Women Living with HIV. For the most part, these are young people who want to start a happy family.
Tahmina Haydarova, the head of the network, says that young men between the ages of 18 and 35 come to them searching for a soulmate with the same HIV status. Often these are labor migrants, former drug users or prisoners who have never been married before. Brides are usually those who have already been married. These women contracted the virus from a migrant husband or partner who used drugs.
Such brides do not ask to sign a marriage contract; they do not ask for an apartment or dacha. The most important thing for them is the timely use of antiretroviral therapy by their future spouse and a healthy life.
HIV is not a barrier
Each year the Republican Network of Women Living with HIV helps at least 5-6 young HIV positive people to find their spouses. Takhmina Haydarova is telling about 10 couples who decided to start a family with the fact that one of the spouses is HIV positive.
“If a person loves and accepts you for who you are, then HIV is not an obstacle to start a family. Today antiretroviral drugs that block the HIV are available. A person living with HIV with a suppressed viral load can start a family, give birth to a healthy child, live a full and happy life the way our clients do,” she says.
According to the Republican AIDS Center, the total number of HIV positive citizens in Tajikistan has reached 10 thousand people, one third of them are women. Since 2004, women with HIV have given birth to 1,000 children, 600 of these children have no HIV.
