The Age
Dewi Cooke
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Migrant community leaders Sheikh Abdinur Weli and Mohamed al-Idani have joined the Men Say No to Family Violence project.
Photo: Penny Stephens
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THE message is simple: family men don't do family violence. But making that understood, Somali imam Sheikh Abdinur Weli has found, has been more complicated.
"I think the community to a certain extent is in denial. Like any other community when things are like this we don't like to admit it, and I have not come across a lot of cases, but what I know is it was part of my culture that was maybe acceptable (back) then," he said.
How the message has been delivered has also been a problem.
"Some concepts are still coming from the Western perspective and not addressing ethnic-specific groups," Iraqi leader Mohamed al-Idani said.
Both men are welfare workers at the Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre. They will be among a chorus of men speaking out in a new initiative to prevent violence against women.
The Men Say No to Family Violence project is among 29 community-based programs VicHealth is announcing today for the broader population as well as ethnic groups. Many have built on last year's VicHealth research, which found that although 97 per cent of people believed violence against women was a crime, worrying numbers believed some violence was sometimes permissible.
The research also found that in Victoria's culturally and linguistically diverse communities, the mainstream campaigns were not getting through well.
"You can't just have an English message and think it will be effective in another language through translation," said Diana Orlando, executive officer of the Immigrant Women's Domestic Violence Service. "You have to have the people themselves come up with messages to critically reflect on their cultures, on their values, on violence within their communities."
The Vietnamese, Chinese, Sudanese and Indian communities are also involved in the VicHealth programs.
Source: The Age, July 12, 2007