美国国家公共电台 NPR Muslim Sex Educators Forge Their Own #MeToo Movement

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

#MeToo movement has given voice to people who've experienced sexual abuse. But a group of young Muslims had created its own #MeToo movement even before it had a name. From Los Angeles, Josie Huang of member station KPCC reports.

JOSIE HUANG, BYLINE¹: For more than a decade, Homam Almahdi kept a secret from the world - that when he was 8, he'd been sexually abused by a family friend.

HOMAM ALMAHDI: Growing up, I kind of believed that sexual violence was just, in general, like, a Western concept - like it doesn't happen to people who are Muslim. If you are spiritual enough, God will protect you from evil.

HUANG: He wondered, had he been spiritual enough? Had he deserved it?

ALMAHDI: Because the perpetrator was Muslim, I was confused.

HUANG: Almahdi is the oldest of four kids in a Syrian-American family from West LA. He didn't realize he'd been assaulted until he took sexual health classes in middle school. And it wasn't until his freshman² year at the University of California, Irvine that he wrote an account of what had happened.

ALMAHDI: It just kind of was in my computer. And I was like, it's my thing I have to be shameful³ about.

HUANG: But then, as a sophomore⁴, he took a workshop on sexual abuse in the Muslim community. It was put on by a group called HEART Women & Girls. All its sex educators are Muslim. And that, Almahdi says, changed his life.

ALMAHDI: It was really emotional for me 'cause I hadn't ever experienced an event like that, where somebody who was Muslim-identifying kind of knew what I had been through.

HUANG: HEART educators have been doing this kind of work for almost a decade.

SAHAR PIRZADA: We're going to be talking about different phrases that are used in the community to oftentimes victim blame.

HUANG: Sahar Pirzada leads HEART workshops throughout Southern California. On this day, she faces a room of Muslim 20-somethings in downtown Los Angeles. She says some Muslims have extra concerns about reporting abuse.

PIRZADA: Who's going to marry me? Or like, what will people think? Is this going to bring shame to my family?

HUANG: Many survivors⁵ also worry about perpetuating⁷ stereotypes⁸ against Muslims.

PIRZADA: Some things that they might be thinking about are, will this just make people be more Islamophobic and think that I'm experiencing this because I'm Muslim?

HUANG: Pirzada came to do this outreach work because of her own difficulties getting proper attention for sexual health issues. She recalls how a white counselor⁹ saw her hijab and presumed her problems must have stemmed from Islam.

PIRZADA: It was just one of those experiences where you're like, are you really making these assumptions about, like, oh, well, maybe it's because your culture doesn't believe in this? Like, that was literally¹⁰ part of the verbiage¹¹ that was used in my therapy session.

HUANG: Part of HEART's work is giving non-Muslim counselors¹² the cultural context so they can treat Muslim clients. That's a big concern for Najeeba Syeed. She teaches at the Claremont School of Theology. She says it's important to recognize that abandoning one's faith is not the solution for many survivors.

NAJEEBA SYEED: Very often, I would hear, well, why don't these people just leave their religious tradition?

HUANG: Syeed says, here's the thing about religion, it can be a source of pain and comfort.

SYEED: For so many, that religious tradition is tied to their culture, to their language. It's where they feel at home.

HUANG: For abuse survivor⁶ Homam Almahdi, he never wanted to leave this home. His faith got him through the trauma¹³ of being sexually abused by another Muslim.

ALMAHDI: My experience helped me rely on a higher power because I just admitted this is something I can't really deal with, and I want God to help me with it. That's how I think my faith became stronger.

HUANG: After attending the HEART workshop, he told his family and close friends what had happened. And these days, he volunteers for the group because he doesn't want any Muslim brother or sister who went through what he had to ever feel alone. For NPR News, I'm Josie Huang in Los Angeles.

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