A Guide for Muslim Faith Leaders and Communities

RESPECT A Guide for Muslim Faith Leaders and Communities Darebin City Council values our community diversity as an important civic asset and has a long standing commitment to supporting greater social cohesion within our local communities, including our Muslim community. This has included the establishment of the Darebin Interfaith Council in2005, signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Council and The Preston Mosque in 2009, “Salam Alaykum: Darebin’s Muslims Reaching-Out“ Project and the Northern Interfaith Respectful Relationship Project funded by VicHealth which developed the Promoting Equal and Respectful Relationships in Faith Communities Manual and Tool Kit. This resource is an abridged, easy to use version of the Manual and Tool Kit, specifically for the Muslim community. It has been developed following a request from The Victorian Board of Imams for a guide to assist them in their work to prevent violence against women and to build respectful relations within the Muslim community. This resource uses the content and expertise from the original Manual and Tool Kit, which has been adapted by Women’s Health In the North. Respect – A Muslim Leader’s Guide to Promote Equal And Respectful Relationships aims to be a practical, accessible resource to empower you and your community to work together in raising the awareness of violence against women and to build your capacity to prevent this violence before it occurs.Working together to prevent violence against women helps create an ultimately safer community for us all. Please note: All attempts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the details contained in this guide at the time of publication (2016). This resource has been designed for users in Melbourne, Australia, and so the information contained is specific to this location. Violence against women and girls is now recognised as one of the leading public health and human rights issues of our time. Because of the scale and complexity of the problem, unique strategies and approaches are needed to effectively reduce and prevent violence against women. This resource provides a starting point for faith communities to work to eliminate violence against women. One of the sad realities of our world is to address the issues that are causing the violence committed by humans to so much pain in their lives. While this each other, and all violence, whether resource focuses on actions to prevent against women, children or men is violence against women, it also provides harmful and wrong. Violence takes information on ways to safely and place in both public spaces and in the appropriately respond to disclosures of home. Women in Australia are more family violence. Information on creating likely to be the victims of physical or a safe space and responding to violence sexual violence in their home at the against women can be found on page 31 hands of a current or former male of this resource. partner than from a stranger. Since the This resource provides an introduction for age of 15, 1 in 5 Australian women has faith communities to examine their own experienced sexual violence, 1 in 3 values and understanding of violence Australian women has experienced against women and start the journey of physical violence and 1 in 4 Australian change to a healthier life for all community women has experienced physical or members. It is important that each faith sexual violence by an intimate partner. community engages with this work at This resource is designed for Muslim faith a level that acknowledges where they leaders to work with their communities are starting from and seek guidance to prevent violence against women and and resources to help them achieve girls before it occurs through encouraging their goals. It is very important that equal and respectful relationships. religious faith leaders take additional steps to educate themselves on how A Muslim faith leader is a person within best to address this issue. their community who is influential, may lead Islamic rituals or offer religious advice. A leader may be an Imam, a teacher, a school or a community member. Whoever they are, as a respected member of the community they can have a role in organising community education on this issue and facilitating action. Within every faith community there will be women, men and children already affected by violence. When we speak about these issues, and when we begin to promote respectful relationships, we provide an opportunity for these members CITY OF DAREBIN 3 4 Contents Section 1: What is violence against women 6 Section 2: Why does violence against women 12 occur and what can be done to end it? Section 3: Steps that you can take to address 16 violence against women 1. Promoting equal and respectful relationships 20 2. Creating awareness and challenging attitudes 22 3. Improving women’s independence and leadership 24 4. Engaging in campaigns that promote gender 26 equity and ending violence against women 5. Working in partnership with organisations and 27 with your own community Section 4: Creating a safe space for responding to 30 violence against women Family Violence Support Services 33 Section 5: Additional resources and information 34 CITY OF DAREBIN 5 Section 1 6 What is violence against women? Violence against women is any act of gender-based violence that is specifically directed against a woman or that affects women disproportionally. It is any act of violence that causes or could cause physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of harm or coercion, in public or in private life. This definition encompasses all forms of violence that women experience, including physical, sexual, emotional, cultural/ spiritual, financial, and others that are gender-based. Family violence is a broad term referring to violence between family members as well as violence between intimate partners or ex-partners. It is not a single incident of violence but is ongoing behaviour that gradually undermines the victim’s confidence and ability to leave the violent person. The severity and frequency of violence often Violence against women escalates over time. Exposing children to takes many forms and the violence or the effects of violence whilst physical violence may is also included as a form of family violence within the law. Family violence be the most visible, other is a gendered crime and is most forms of violence such as commonly experienced by women. sexual, emotional, social, Intimate partner violence is any spiritual and financial abuse behaviour by a man or a woman within can be equally harmful. an intimate relationship (including current or past marriages, cohabitating or non-cohabitating couples) that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm to those in the relationship. This is the most common form of violence against women. CITY OF DAREBIN 7 SOCIAL ABUSE is described as using someone’s social life to control them or make SEXUAL ABUSE is unwanted them feel bad about themselves. This can and forced sexual activity or include isolating a person from family, friends harassment. This can include and other social circles. using force to have sex, using demands or tricks to make someone do sexual things, or making someone feel bad about themselves and EMOTIONAL AND VERBAL ABUSE are their sexuality. behaviours and actions that cause mental harm. This includes making someone feel bad about themselves, using threats or put-downs, name calling, threatening to hurt or kill, telling someone they are useless, or purposely making them feel bad about themselves. FINANCIAL ABUSE is behaviours and actions that PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE includes behaviours control a person’s finances and actions that cause a person to feel in and do not allow them to be danger, powerless and trapped. Women economically independent. experience multiple and different inequalities, Money can be used as a such as those based on culture, ethnicity, age, way of taking power over sexuality and disability and will therefore also someone. This can include experience violence in different ways as well. keeping control of all money Racial violence and abuse that is commonly matters, stopping someone experienced by Muslim women may include from getting a job, gambling daily forms of racism and incivility, such as being or selling personal things ridiculed and insulted, verbal abuse including without permission. intimidating and threatening behaviour, acts of discrimination and physical violence, including having hijab removed and being spat on. SPIRITUAL ABUSE is described as PHYSICAL ABUSE is physical acts that using religious or spiritual beliefs hurt or scare whether they cause visible to justify violence or denying or non-visible injury. This can include a person to practice particular holding, shoving, pushing, restraining, religious beliefs. It includes using torturing, driving a car dangerously the partner’s religious or spiritual in order to scare, punching, biting, beliefs to manipulate them, or threatening, kicking, burning, throwing using religious leaders to dissuade or smashing personal objects, punching women from seeking support holes in walls or doors, hurting or killing because ‘it is against the religion to pets, breaking things or using a weapon. go outside the community’. 8 Violence against women in Islam Any form of emotional, physical, psychological abuse and the improper treatment of women is prohibited and not accepted in Islam. Islam clearly disallows family violence and any form of oppression or abuse. All women and men are protected under Islamic law. Violence against women is now It limits the capacity of female members recognised as one of the leading to effectively contribute to the life of human rights issues of our time, with the community and damages the social global research indicating that it is cohesion necessary to form a strong, prevalent in every community and unified team. every culture. It has an enormous impact on women and their children, eroding their mental, physical, emotional and financial wellbeing.

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