African religious leaders admitted on Sunday that their own institutions are sometimes guilty of spreading the stigma attached to HIV/Aids.
Christian and Muslim leaders attending the 13th International Conference on Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa, being held from September 21 to 26 in Nairobi, Kenya, spoke of damning attitudes to the virus that are spread by their churches and mosques.
Sheikh Al Haj Yussuf Murigu, vice-chairperson of the Muslim Supreme Council of Kenya, said HIV is equated with “a curse”, and those who live with it are viewed as “sinners”.
Bishop Otsile Osimilwe said the church tends to point a finger at people living with HIV, instead of adopting a caring and compassionate response.
Father Peter Lwaminda, a Roman Catholic priest, said it was “a question of condemnation”.
“Many religious leaders I have met have inspired fear in people,” he said.
An Anglican priest living with HIV, Reverend Jape Heath, linked the stigma and discrimination to what he described as his church’s double standards when it comes to the concept of ‘sin’. Lying and cheating on tax returns are considered “socially acceptable”, he said, while being HIV-positive is equated with being caught in adultery.
“The church has been exceptionally good at judgmentalism,” Heath said. “The role of the stigma has been to see an increase of the pandemic” because people are too scared to be tested for HIV.
The Anglican church looks on those living with HIV as sinners who can be “written off”, he said.
“That has been the church’s major contribution to the stigma attached to HIV.”
Misogyny and lack of gender equality have also contributed to the spread of the virus, the conference heard, by not allowing women to make choices about their lives.
“The church has been quite behind in dealing with gender injustice,” said Dr Musa Dube, a Christian theologian. “Every culture that is patriarchal exposes women to HIV.”
UNAids estimates that 60% of HIV-positive women in Africa believe themselves to be in monogamous relationships and are therefore infected by unfaithful partners.
Dube said it is imperative for religious leaders to educate themselves about HIV/Aids and for their churches to give them training sessions and educational materials to do so.
Theology also needs to be developed that can support a compassionate attitude towards people living with HIV, and it needs to be explained in a language that they can understand, she added.
“We religious leaders are part of the problem,” Dube said. — Irin