A Missed Opportunity: 

The Role of Faith Leaders in Ending Gender-Based Violence

This opinion piece is written by Abel Koka, Gender Equality, Equity and SRHR Activist based in Canada.

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) remains a significant yet preventable stumbling block towards achieving gender equality. Faith leaders, like decision-makers, policymakers, and everyone else in the community, have a critical role in addressing GBV. GBV affects people of all genders, ages, religions, cultures, ethnicities, geographic locations, and socio-economic backgrounds. Nevertheless, women, young women, and girls are more at risk of experiencing various forms of violence in their daily life. For instance, according to statistics by UN Women, almost 1 in 3 women globally are reported to have experienced various forms of violence in their lifetime. Gender-based violence affects women physically, mentally, socially, and economically. It squeezes women into a margin of poverty. GBV impairs women’s ability to be active agents of change. It infringes on their right to make informed decisions and choices over what they want to be in the community.

However, despite their influence, in my opinion, unlike other leaders, faith leaders’ contributions and influence are overlooked in interventions aimed at ending all forms of violence against women and girls. Even when engaged, their representation is low, and their participation does not represent the number of faith institutions and leaders available across our communities. The main reason might be that it takes a lot of knowledge, courage, and even carefulness to engage with faith leaders because faith or religious beliefs are not homogeneous and advocacy for change still has to navigate respect for differences in religious beliefs. With the world’s population having such diversity in people’s faiths, you would expect that different religions would not hold the same views on the position, roles, and rights of women and girls in the community. Some religions, for instance, are far behind others in building their understanding or beliefs on the rights of women to make informed decisions and choices over their bodies for instance.

Therefore, we should look at working with religious institutions as a unique opportunity for gender equality activists to find different faith platforms to raise awareness and advocate for equal rights and opportunities for everyone to thrive in the community regardless of who they are. Placing faith leaders and their followers at the center of protecting and valuing women will not only help to change peoples’ narratives on women’s rights but will also make religious leaders and actors be a part of a lasting solution.

I am saying this because I have seen in my community in Tanzania that whenever things are not going right, our leaders will seek refuge and advice from faith leaders who are very keen and ready to support and take the community through different difficult moments. It can be spiritually through prayers, counseling, preaching peace, or even the provision of material, emotional and moral support to those in need. The question is still, why are we not taking full advantage of this available opportunity to ensure women and girls can live a life that is not overshadowed by any form of violence? One day, I was talking to a friend about this subject. It was fascinating to hear his views that if we can influence our faith leaders to call out all forms of violence against women and girls in every message they preach, we could reach millions of people, and the impact would be incredible. But how do we get there, given the existing local, national, regional, and global initiatives?

We must first appreciate the role of faith institutions, their leaders, and their followers as contributors to realizing a just, equal, and safe society. It has been done so since time immemorial. Just as it has been for other structures in the community, such as family, education, and political institutions, faith institutions have undoubtedly played a critical role in the construction and reconstruction of people’s perceptions, behaviors, and practices to treat each other with respect and dignity. As far as I understand, every faith across the globe preaches, among others, about love, peace, humility, empowerment, fairness, justice, non-violence, tolerance, kindness, and forgiveness. These principles keep the community together and form a strong foundation for advancing the rights and well-being of women and girls.

One of the central faith golden rules in my context has always been, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you“. What an advocacy opportunity – to challenge faith leaders to look at themselves and see how they reflect that golden rule in what they teach about sufferings inflicted on women and girls simply because of their gender.

Our religious leaders should examine whether they are walking their talk in ensuring women as men and girls as boys can reach their full potential free of violence. In that vein, we should also place our efforts on interventions that ensure faith leaders and their followers are well-informed, empowered, and encouraged to be torchbearers of GBV prevention, support survivors and their families, and promote responsive legal and justice systems.

Furthermore, we should all understand the different faith contexts when it comes to the promotion of the rights of women and how religions widen the existing inequalities and may even contribute to inequity in the community. Growing our knowledge in this area may give us new entry points to engage with faith institutions, their leaders, and followers in our quest to seek collaboration and support to prevent GBV. Similarly, those who perpetuate inequalities and suffering for women and girls may be members of various faith institutions. With that in mind, we need to engage more faith leaders/actors to transform people’s behaviors, attitudes, and actions now than ever. We also need to hold our religious leaders accountable for walking their talk by putting equity policies in place and into action.