By Sam Bagnall Series producer, World Weddings

Dr Arash Alaei tries to help heroin addicts on the streets

Iran has the highest proportion of heroin addicts in the world and a growing Aids problem.

In a country where discussing sex, drugs and Aids is taboo, two doctors tackle the stigma and help those who are suffering.

Maryam is just 21, from a small town outside Kermanshah in north western Iran.

Mohammad and the Matchmaker Wednesday, 16 June, 2004 2200 BST on BBC Two

Since contracting HIV from her husband - a heroin addict who recently died - her world has fallen apart.

"It was really difficult for me. I went through so many miseries and after everything I got infected with HIV. I never had any joy in my marriage and now I have this illness.

"It was not my fault. It was his fault, my husband. He had the pleasure and the sin, and I didn't know anything about it."

Maryam's chances of finding another husband to care for her and her young daughter seem slim.

That is where Dr Kamiar Alaei comes in.

The number of heroin addicts increased after the revolution... we never had that many junkies before Mohammad, former drug addict

Along with his brother Arash, who is also a doctor, Kamiar is on a personal mission to help the growing number of HIV/Aids patients in Iran.

The doctors have become counsellors and confidants to patients like Maryam, in a country where discussing sexually transmitted diseases is still taboo.

They have taken their roles to extremes and have even begun attempting to match-make HIV positive patients.

Street junkies

Arash Alaei says: "When you are HIV positive, it is incredibly difficult to meet a new partner. Imagine what it is like to try to tell someone that you have feelings for, that you are infected.

"It tends to stop you even getting close to people. I see this kind of pastoral care as every bit as important as the medical side."

Doctors Arah and Kamiar Alaei tried to find Maryam a husband

Dr Arash Alaei runs a clinic in Tehran, where he caters for the growing number of drug addicts and prostitutes who are infected with the virus.

It takes him to parts of Iran which are never seen in the west, where junkies sprawl on streets littered with needles.

Much of his work is done for free, and it has been recognised in the US, Thailand and throughout Europe. Institutions such as the World Health Organisation and UNAids have praised him for bringing to light a largely hidden problem.

The Alaei brothers, both in their mid-30s, come from a well-off family in Kermanshah. They are acutely conscious that their privileged upbringing, and training as doctors, brings social responsibilities.

"We doctors take the Hippocratic oath when we graduate, to serve people. We have to share what we have with others in society," says Arash.

He continues: "I'm not saying that we have to suffer and crucify ourselves for people. But if we have enough to lead a normal life we should share the extras with people who have less."

We face a huge potential HIV problem in Iran... it is not easy to talk about sexual matters in what is still a very traditional country Dr Kamiar Alaei

There are plenty of people who need their help. Iran has the highest proportion of hard drug users of any country in the world.

Cheap opium and increasingly refined heroin flood over the border from Afghanistan.

Some estimates put the number of users as high as three million - one in 20 of the population.

In such a rigid society in which public dancing and music were - until recently - illegal, drugs have become a common form of recreation.

Junkies are a common site on the streets of the major cities. Prostitution, too, is commonplace.

These are not images commonly associated with the world's largest Islamic republic.

Young addicts

Mohammed, one of Arash's patients, says: "The number of heroin addicts increased after the revolution. We never had many junkies before that.

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