Workshop on violence against children in Muslim community

The participants of this programme will be primarily Muslim children, parents and teachers. The religious leaders of the community will play active role in the programme. The programme will be held in convenient location for both Muslim parents, children and teachers.

The programme will be divided into two different sessions. The first session will be focused on various aspects of violence against children discussed by religious leaders and activists working on violence against children. The programme will start with prayer in Islam led by Muslim religious leaders. All the participants will also join the session. Religious leader will speak on perspective of violence against children in Quran (Islamic text) and encouraging the participants to adopt non violent child rearing and also to stop early marriage of Muslim girls. The leader will also encourage parents to register the birth of their children. Birth registration professional working on the government or staff at NGO working on birth registration drive will be invited to speak on procedure and importance of birth registration. An activist/researcher working on violence against children in Nepal will speak on status and consequence of violence against children in Nepal. The two sessions will be followed by open floor discussion in which the participants are welcome to raise any issues or questions they want to discuss with the speakers.

The second session will be based on group discussion and art workshop. The participating Muslim parents and teachers will be divided into various groups in which they will discuss issues relating to violence against children for one hour. During that time, children will be engaged in painting and drawing about violence against children. The group discussion will be followed by group presentation in which parents present the conclusions of their discussion. This process will enable them to internalize negative effects of violence against children and enable them to advocate eliminating violence against children in Muslim community. The children will display their artwork on the programme hall. This will signify the solidarity and understanding between parents, teachers and children.

Keywords: Muslim, Islam, Asia, FBO, faith-based organization, Violence against children, positive parenting, Nepal