S1E6 Engaging Faith and Spiritual Leaders

The Sexual Violence Research Podcast

Faith and spiritual leaders are influential, often deeply trusted members of their communities, with power to direct community attitudes on violence against women and violence against children. In this episode we find out why it’s critical that we engage faith and spiritual leaders to address these issues, we discuss the patriarchal nature of religion and faith, and the importance of bringing more women into the conversation. We also hear about promising programmes with faith leaders that are making positive and sustainable change possible. Our guests are Shruti Majumdar, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist at the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, Elisabet Le Roux, Research Director at the Unit for Religion and Development Research at Stellenbosch University, and Prabu Deepan, Gender Equality Practitioner and Advocate at Tearfund. Find out more at svri.org.