In Indonesia, AIDS Education Clashes With Islam

Indonesian movie star Nurul Arifin promotes HIV/AIDS education, speaking to groups and often shocking them by using a prosthetic penis and slang terms to explain the need for condom use. But leaders of some Islamic fundamentalist groups object to her tactics, saying that promoting condom use is promoting sinful behavior.

Such controversy hinders the struggle in Islam's most-populous nation to stanch a potentially dangerous rise in HIV infections. Nationwide, HIV infections jumped approximately 62 percent to 210,000 last year. The growth rate, especially among intravenous drug users and commercial sex workers, is so alarming that that World Health Organization ranked Indonesia an even higher priority than China and Thailand, where AIDS epidemics rage.

Yet AIDS educators have problems disseminating hard-hitting prevention messages due to the nation's small but increasingly outspoken Islamic fundamentalist groups such as the Indonesian Mujahiddin Council, which blocked an ad campaign by Family Health International in 2002. Indonesian censors and the Health Ministry had previously cleared the ads.

Even some moderate Islamic groups are reluctant to support the condom message because extramarital sex and sex between unmarried couples is forbidden by the religion. The country's highest Islamic authority, the Indonesian Ulemas Council, urges Muslims to fight HIV/AIDS by "being more religious, and closer to family and society."

Indonesia's huge sex industry and local cultures that accept male infidelity put sex workers, their customers, and married women at risk of infection. The government said it will not let its national policy be affected by fundamentalist protests. The Health Ministry has a multiyear plan for stronger education programs in schools, better training for health-care workers, and more centers for voluntary HIV testing/counseling. The ministry is also planning rehabilitation and AIDS counseling and treatment for arrested drug users rather than just jail.

Back to other news for March 26, 2004