A painful article to read. May Allaah facilitate the affairs of the Muslims and grant this father and his family the highest level of Firdaws, aameen

March 13 — Sitting and eating quietly on his father’s lap, the 18-month-old was oblivious to the infection in his veins.

A farmer, holding his 18-month-old son, as he was tested for H.I.V. in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. The boy had previously tested positive.

But his father, a burly farmer, knew only too well. It was the same one that killed his wife four months ago, leaving him alone with four children. The man started to cry.

 “When my wife died, I thought, well, it is from God, but at least I have him,” he said. “Then I learned he is sick, too. I asked if there is medicine and the doctors said no. They said, ‘Just trust in God.’ ”

The father of the infected 18-month-old said his village mullah had never talked about AIDS. Nearly a year of tests on the father have found no H.I.V., and the older children are clear, but his smallest child tested positive at 10 months. “The doctor asked me a lot of questions — did you have an operation, did you have illegal sex?” he said. “But I knew I was a Muslim, and I don’t have illegal sex, and I trusted my wife, too. So then he said it was from her operation.”

Six years earlier, his wife lost a baby and had several transfusions in Pakistan. After she became sick and was found to be infected, “I told the family her blood was not good and to avoid eating with her,” he said. “And I tell them not to kiss the child.”

When he was told he could indeed kiss his son, he burst into tears.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said. “I have sacrificed so much since my marriage. I mortgaged half my land to pay for her medical care.”

The father can do little for his son but keep his secret. There are no AIDS treatment centers in Afghanistan, only a single confidential clinic in the capital that just monitors the disease, and no antiretroviral drugs are available.

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