‘I feel more comfortable asking questions’: how we worked with mosques to talk with Muslim women about reproductive health
In some communities, cultural norms can make it hard for women to ask about sex, contraception, periods, pregnancy or birth in mainstream health-care settings.
The Australian government has allocated significant funding towards women's health services, yet many Muslim women in Australia face challenges in accessing and understanding such services. Discrimination, religious concerns, unfamiliarity with the healthcare system, and cultural norms contribute to these women's reluctance to seek needed care.
To address this issue, researchers collaborated with Muslim women in Sydney over a two-year period, aiming to develop culturally appropriate resources focusing on reproductive health. The project, known as WARDA (meaning "rose" in Arabic), engaged with numerous mosque communities, female faith leaders, and community volunteers to co-design and deliver faith-informed community workbooks.
The workshops, which engaged over 400 women from diverse backgrounds, revealed that simply translating mainstream health information into other languages was not sufficient. Muslim women often required assurance that the information aligned with their religious values and wished to have non-judgmental, women-only environments in which to ask questions and receive accurate, faith-informed health information.
The results were overwhelmingly positive, with 99.8% of participants expressing their intention to recommend the workshops and resources to others, and 81.8% intending to make changes in their lives based on the information provided. Moving forward, the women involved emphasized the need for continued workshops and additional topics catering to Muslim men.
Written by urgent.news from The Conversation AU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
