More than 60 religious male and female leaders from three religious communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have been studying ways to prevent violence against women and violence in general for six years.
For Marko Vidovic, a priest in Prijedor, the project jointly implemented by several organizations in cooperation with the United Nations (UN) Women in BiH is an opportunity to share knowledge about the prevention of violence not only with members of the religious community but also with children through his work as a religious teacher.
”I learned a lot. You have situations where someone commits violence, and many people support him, in schools for example. We have to teach young people to say that it’s not okay, that they don’t support such things,” Vidovic states.
The principle of faith and the clear philosophy of Islam also motivated the imam from Sanski Most, Salem Huric, to become more actively involved in the prevention of all forms of violence.
It is not rare that some conservative Islamic “religious influencers” or online preachers in BiH often give controversial interpretations about the position or opportunities and freedoms of Muslim women, diminishing or completely questioning a woman’s right to work, to be educated.
Huric, imam of the mosque in Skucani Vakuf in Sanski Most, emphasizes that such interpretations are completely incorrect.
”I don’t know if you will understand me – I will not say that women are equal but they are even more equal than men. Islam is clear here. Islam as a philosophy and religion advocates absolute equality and even gives priority to women over men. We cannot doubt that it can be different,” he says and adds that violence and injustice are forbidden to everyone.
To question the traditional relations between man and woman
The project started in 2016 and was first joined by two imams from Sanski Most, in the west of BiH, with the organization of the Peace Implementation Council.
”They recognized the importance of working on this project and helped us gather a group of religious leaders from all three denominations,” says Nadja Hasanovic from this Council.
Education of religious officials involves working with Centers for social work, mental health, and other civil society organizations, safe houses, in order to first assess the seriousness of the problem.
The task of religious leaders is to promote messages and transfer the knowledge they have in their local communities within the framework of religious gatherings, start discussions, and question established patterns.
”Religious leaders often say that they find themselves in situations where women ask for help, because they see them as a safe point to which they can turn, and they may not yet be sufficiently aware of what women can do in such a situation, where to turn,” says Hasanovic.
That is why, she adds, religious leaders, must speak loudly and critically about the problem of violence, pressure on women, and traditional attitudes and be a source of information.
Violence against women in BiH
According to data from the Agency for Gender Equality of BiH from 2021, every third woman is a victim of violence, and every second woman over the age of 15 has experienced some form of psychological, economic, or physical abuse.
From UN Women, they state that the project, which they are implementing in BiH with the Institute for Population and Development from Sarajevo with the help of the Government of Sweden, is unique precisely because of the specificity that several religious communities operate in a small area in the country, and that it is being implemented in a similar way in Jordan, bearing in mind the position of women in that country, as well as the importance of religion in society, RSE reports.
E.Dz.
