Activists and clergy in Egypt have joined forces in an attempt to reduce domestic violence, which is believed to affect around a third of all women, not just in Egypt, but across the Middle East and North Africa.
The initiative was launched by the British-based broadcaster SAT-7 and marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women earlier this week.
Further motivation to take action came following the broadcast of an episode of Today Not Tomorrow, in which a woman was beaten to death by her husband. Following the broadcast, significant numbers of viewers sent in messages detailing their experiences of domestic violence.
The initiative involved workshops by therapists and a local priest, Father Girgis. A hundred and fifty women took part in the workshops, which allowed them to both share their experiences and receive advice in a safe and faith-based environment.
Many said that domestic abuse was seen as a typical part of their culture, adding that even churches often did little or nothing to deal with the problem due to the perception that it is a private matter.
One local woman said, “I told the priest about my problem. He said, ‘Be patient, this is your cross to bear.’ But why didn’t he say, ‘Bring him and let’s sit and talk, tell him what he’s doing wrong?’”
The programme also involved men, with attempts made to understand the pressures they face that may lead to violence and to encourage them to be “partners in change”.
The workshops were hosted as part of SAT-7’s five-year Gender Equality and Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) project. Now in its fourth year, the project aims to "help women and men, boys and girls experience the freedom to have, change and manifest an alternative belief equally, regardless of their gender".
Project Lead, Maggie Morgan, said, “The question that we ask is: what is the problem? What is the symptom? And we want to go to that area; we want to say: where does it hurt? And we go there.
“But with the focus on freedom of religion and belief, what we’re trying to do is go to the source and find out why these symptoms are happening. And one of the things that we try very hard to do is to change the narrative, the way we think.”
