Unfair to penalise son, cries mum

NST: Why penalise my son? This is the cry of housewife Jamaliah Sulaiman, 39, whose six-year-old son has been barred from studying in a government-aided pre-school because he is HIV-positive.
"Is my son being penalised because I was truthful enough to declare to the authorities that he is HIV-positive?" asked Jamaliah, who is also HIV-positive.
She said she informed the school with good intentions but it turned out that the school was stigmatising those with HIV/AIDS.
She said it was through no fault of hers that she got infected and now her son has to suffer for it.
Jamaliah, who also has two adopted daughters aged 11 and 10 (both free of HIV), was diagnosed with HIV in 1998, a year after her husband died.
"I did not know my husband had HIV until he died."
Jamaliah, like many others, found that she was HIV-positive when she went for blood tests during a Health Ministry HIV/AIDS screening campaign in her hometown in Selangor.
When the blood bank called to inform her, she went into denial.
Only when health officials continually called and insisted that she come for counselling, did she accept the fact.
Jamaliah kept her sickness to herself for fear that her family, and society, would isolate her, but she strictly followed what the doctors told her so as not to infect anybody else.
In 1999, she received a marriage proposal and despite her repeated rejections, she said, she was finally forced to marry due to family pressure.
"I did not tell my husband that I was HIV-positive. I did not practise safe sex and I became pregnant."
She had a safe delivery but her son was confirmed HIV-positive a year ago.
"I thank Allah that my husband was not infected," she said, adding that she was grateful that her husband accepted her condition and agreed to continue life with her and the children.
Jamaliah is now a HIV activist, helping other women live a normal life in society.