CAIRO (AP) – In his bedroom, there’s a drawer full of his medications – along with CDs of a popular Egyptian Muslim preacher. On the walls of the home are two paintings by his father. They’ve had a strained relationship. He opens an album and shows pictures of his mother.
His mother supported him after she discovered he was HIV positive. When the doctor initially refused to treat him, she threatened to sue him.
“I was lucky my mother was still alive,” said Ahmed, a 40-year-old who is among the around 11,000 Egyptians living with HIV. She passed away recently, and now he wants to leave Egypt. He can no longer stand the social stigma around HIV and AIDS.
Ahmed spoke to The Associated Press on condition that his full name not be used, details of his life not be given and his face not be shown in photos – a sign of how overwhelming the stigma remains here 30 years after the first case of HIV infection was discovered in Egypt. Though it is spread more here by heterosexual contact, as well as drug use and sex work, the disease is strongly linked in the public’s mind to same-sex intercourse and homosexuality, which are profoundly taboo.
“The first question people ask me is, ‘How did you get it?” Ahmed said.