DUSHANBE, November 28, Asia-Plus -- A republican conference formally titled “Islam Combats AIDS” was held in Dushanbe on November 28.

The conference. Staged by the Guli Surkh Public Association under support of Act Central Asia and Tajik Islamic University named after Imam Tirmizi, has brought together clerics from all regions of the country.   

Tajikistan’s  grand mufti Hoji Amonullo Nematzoda inaugurated the conference and called on clerics to make contribution to events to prevent spread of HIV/AIDS in the country and make parishioners aware of the disease.   

Speaking at the conference, the NGO Guli Surkh director Sevar Komilova noted that Islam and its position on morality, chastity and the sanctity of marriage could play an important role in preventing spread of the HIV/AIDS infection in the country. 

“To combat HIV/AIDS is a task of not only medical workers and specialists, it is our common tasks – the task of the people and the task of clerics,”  Komilova said.  According to her, before 2005, 78 percent of HIV sufferers officially registered in Tajikistan were injecting drug users, while at present the number of persons who contracted the disease through sexual intercourses is increasing. 

She noted that a number of HIV-infected people in Tajikistan now exceeds 1,000.   “Today a number of women living with HIV in remote districts is increasing,” Komilova said.