By Lizzy Carr, Bauchi
A Bauchi Christian religious leader, Bishop Isaac Crown of Peculiar People’s church, has advocated for churches to establish gender desks in places of worship to educate followers on sexual and gender-based violence.
Crown spoke at a 2-day capacity building organised by ASHH Foundation for stakeholders to bridge the gap created by impunity towards sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) and how to mitigate the practice in Bauchi state.
According to him, religious, traditional and community leaders are found wanting for aiding sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) through their wrong teachings and administration, which mostly give wrong signals for such violence to take place.
In his paper titled, “Bridging the gap of impunity in mitigating sexual and gender-based on women and girls: Faith based intervention for churches and clergy,” said religious and community leaders in some instances are aiding sexual and gender-based violence by urging victims and their families not to report such cases.
“The Christian clerics shy away from talking about relationship except during wedding ceremonies. There is need to establish gender desks to create awareness about identifying symptoms and preventive measures of gender-based violence,” he said.
Crown, who drew various scriptures from the Bible in support of fight against GBV, lamented that sexual and gender-based violence have been in existence from time immemorial and has continued to be on the increase because of the wrong teachings by some religious leaders.
He noted that community and traditional leaders are susceptible to the menace as they do everything possible to cover up the track of such violations to the detriment of the victims, adding that Christianity does not condole violence in any form.
“God wants the man to honour the woman, protect and provide for her”
Crown called on the stakeholders to rise up and fight all forms of gender-based violence in the society, stressing that unless such was done, more women and girls would fall victims, which will negatively affect the society.
He stressed the need for the victims to speak out so that they can be rescued, helped and rehabilitated before reintegration back into the society.
Speaking on violence against women from the perspective of Islamic religion, the Bauchi state Amirah of Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria, FOMWAN, Aishatu Ibrahim also called for the establishment of marriage counseling centres in religious institutions.
She spoke extensively on the Islamic provisions on gender-based violence, pursuit for knowledge and position on inheritance.
Ibrahim however lamented that the high rate of divorce and treatment meted out to divorcees, is not in tandem with Islamic teachings.
