What Survivors Of Abuse From Faith Communities Want Us To Know
To mark the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the Faith and VAWG Coalition launched ‘Keeping the Faith: What Survivors From Faith Communities Want Us to Know’.
The report that uncovers the unique challenges and experiences of survivors of VAWG from faith communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, through a series of interviews and questionnaires of specialists working in by and for organisations.
The panel of speakers included:
Naima Khan, the Director of the Inclusive Mosque Initiative
Nicole Jacobs, Designate Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales
Dr Ava Kanyeredzi, Lead Member & Researcher on the Black Churches Domestic Abuse Forum
Faeeza Vaid MBE, Executive Director at Muslim Women's Network UK
Huda Jawad, Co-founder of Faith and VAWG Coalition, Standing Together
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ending violence against women and girls sector has been proactively responding to the escalating abuse and the resulting rapidly changing needs of women. Where some strategic gains have been had in highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on women and children being abused by men, the voices and needs of women from faith backgrounds have been conspicuously absent. Many survivors from faith backgrounds have reported that secular specialist services and society, in general, are unable to understand their experiences of abuse, and the barriers to accessing support. Often the unique role religion and spirituality play in their lives and how these manifests in their communities, experiences of abuse and healing is little if understood at all.
Read the entire report I helped create for Faith and VAWG Coalition here.
