Domestic Violence Campaign to help Scottish Muslims
- 10 Jan
Charity in Scotland are launching a new campaign to fight domestic violence against Muslim women and show the true Islamic teachings about what is allowed.
The campaign called Change This will use passages from the Qu'ran to change the misconception that Islam allows violence against women.
The charity Amina, who run a helpline for Muslim women in Scotland, is launching the campaign, and said it was aware of many cases where people used their religion in an attempt to justify violence.
Part of the campaign will be going out and speaking to men and women to voice the issue and stop it being hidden away.
Smina Akhtar, from Amina, said
We have women coming in, phoning our helpline, time and time again and saying: 'My husband said it's okay, he told me the Koran says it's okay'.
We're quite surprised that Muslim women are often not educated even in Islam, because Islam does not condone violence. For black and minority ethnic women, for Muslim women, it seems to take them longer than the indigenous women to come and speak up.
We'll use phrases within the Qu'ran to say no, actually the Quran does not say that it's okay for your husband to hit you,Organisers are asking people to oppose all sorts of violence against women and girls and, to make the problem heard; to talk to both men and women about the problem so that it cannot remain hidden.
Shakti Women's Aid, who offer help to ethnic minority women experiencing domestic abuse in Scotland, is also supporting the campaign.
Mridul Wadhwa from Shakti Women's Aid said:
There is a need for an open and honest discussion about it; we cannot use arguments of faith and culture or men's 'rights' as an excuse any more.
Men should be involved in this discussion too.
Sometimes individuals connected to faith groups will encourage methods of mediation to make the abused reconcile with their abusers and I don't think that's appropriate.
Victims need to speak to someone safe, a service that's not compromised in any way by issues of patriarchy.
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