Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ)
Governments across Australia have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars towards women’s health services in recent months and years – but having more health services won’t help if people don’t know they’re available or how to access them.
Many Australian Muslim women are at risk of falling through the cracks this way; many have experienced discrimination in health-care settings (or worry they will). Others are unsure if certain treatments or health practices align with their religious values, or (for those born overseas) may be unfamiliar with how the Australian health-care system works.
This can end up discouraging them from seeking care they need. In some communities, cultural norms also make it hard for women to ask questions openly about sex, contraception, periods, pregnancy and birth.
To address these gaps, we worked with Muslim women in Sydney over two years to co-design and deliver resources aimed at helping Muslim women understand their own reproductive health and available health services.
Our report, launched this week, reveals how the mosque itself can be a crucial setting for the delivery of culturally appropriate, evidence-based reproductive health resources for Muslim women in Australia.
What we did
In the first year of our project (which we called WARDA, meaning “rose” in Arabic), we went to many mosque communities to learn from women.
We worked with female faith leaders and community volunteers at local mosques to start women’s “discussion circles” around reproductive health. We wanted to ask these women what reproductive health meant to them, where the gaps were and how to address these gaps.
We had an advisory group of faith leaders, health professionals and other community leaders – all of whom were Muslim women in New South Wales.
They helped us interpret the data we collected and develop four faith-informed community workbooks. Our goal was to produce health resources and information that was scientifically sound and evidence based, while also aligning with the religious values of Muslim women.
We also included in the booklets detail on how women could get more information from existing services and resources, including groups such as Jean Hailes for Women’s Health, Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia (PANDA), endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics, Family Planning NSW and local women’s health centres.
WARDA, Western Sydney University
What we found
We then held 26 workshops with 490 women across NSW mosques and Muslim community organisations, to present and discuss the four booklets. Of these women:
- 30% were born in Australia
- the others came from 33 different countries
- 21 different languages were spoken
- some were married, some were not
- almost half spoke either only English or English with another language at home
- 67% were from areas of most social disadvantage
- 67% had a bachelors degree or higher.
It soon became clear that simply translating mainstream health messaging into other languages was not enough. Many told us they needed faith-informed information and assurance from female faith leaders that the information provided was aligned with their religious values. One participant, a 23-year-old woman born in Pakistan, told us:
It is extremely important to be in a safe and supportive environment around women with the same values and background as you, as I feel more comfortable asking questions, don’t feel ashamed, and know any responses will be provided in an
Islamic context. I feel more empowered to improve my health and stand my ground regarding my rights as a woman. So important to dispel cultural myths; they can be deeply harmful for women.
They also appreciated having a non-judgemental women-only environment where facilitators could provide faith-informed accurate health information in a non-stigmatising way. One 42-year-old woman born in Morocco told us:
Many Muslim women might feel embarrassed to ask a non-Muslim health worker; also, you trust more that person because you share same beliefs.
Another UAE-born woman, aged 23, said:
I appreciate the shame- and guilt-free conversations we were able to have. Really appreciated how the conveners approached the “inappropriate” questions with a lot of understanding rather than judgement.
During our evaluation process, we found that 99.8% said they would recommend the workshops and resources to others, 91.2% found them very useful and 81.8% intended to make changes in their life after attending one of the workshops.
When asked what kinds of actions they would take following the project, women told us they would do things such as:
Asking my daughter to start using a period tracker.
Discuss it with my son, insha’Allah (God willing).
Educate my husband as well about this information.
I can talk to my neighbours and friends about the Islamic perspective on periods […] no stigma about it.
I’ll do the cervical screening test, and I’ll try to remember to take my post-natal supplements.
Pay more attention to my cycle and utilise care centres.
Where to from here?
The women we worked with called for these workshops to be held more often and on an ongoing basis, including more age groups in them, and for similar programs to be held for Muslim men. One participant told us:
Men and boys should be taught this for how they can help us women.
Another said she would
love to see the topics of premenopause and menopause be added to these courses.
For policymakers, our project shows how working with and in mosques with female faith leaders can help get evidence-based women’s health information to women who may otherwise be quite hard to reach through mainstream health messaging.
Sadia Hossain has received funding on behalf of Western Sydney University from the NSW government for WARDA. She is a volunteer for the Australian Islamic Medical Association for mosque-based blood donation drive and LifeSavers Program.