Table Of ContentReligion and Gender-Based Violence
This book takes religion as an entry point for a deeper exploration into why
practices of gender-based violence continue and what possible actions might help
to contribute to their eradication.
International donors are committed to reducing and ending gender-related
harm, particularly violence against women, but clear answers as to why harm-
ful practices persist are often slow to emerge. Theological research struggles to
find strong links, yet religion is often referred to by local people as the reason
for practices such as female cutting, male circumcision, early and forced mar-
riage, nutritional taboos and birth practices, mandatory (un)veiling, harmful
spiritual practices, polygamy, gender unequal marital and inheritance rights and
so-called honour crimes. This book presents empirical cases of religious, non-
religious and secular actors, including local and international governmental and
non- governmental agencies in the fields of development, health and equality pol-
icies. Tracing their different understandings of how religion is entangled with
gender-based violence both contextually as well as historically, the book sheds
light on helpful and unhelpful as well as erroneous and harmful understandings
of such practices in local and global perspectives.
Centralising the perspectives of women themselves, this book will be an
important read for development practitioners and policy makers, as well as for
researchers across religious studies, gender studies, and global development.
Brenda Bartelink is assistant professor at the Faculty of Theology and Religious
Studies, University of Groningen, Netherlands.
Chia Longman is associate professor of gender studies and the director of the
Centre for Research on Culture and Gender, Ghent University, Belgium.
Tamsin Bradley is professor of international development at the University of
Portsmouth, UK.
Routledge Research in Religion and Development
The Routledge Research in Religion and Development series focuses on the diverse
ways in which religious values, teachings and practices interact with international
development.
While religious traditions and faith-based movements have long served as forces
for social innovation, it has only been within the last ten years that researchers
have begun to seriously explore the religious dimensions of international develop-
ment. However, recognising and analysing the role of religion in the development
domain is vital for a nuanced understanding of this field. This interdisciplinary
series examines the intersection between these two areas, focusing on a range of
contexts and religious traditions.
Series Editors:
Matthew Clarke, Deakin University, Australia
Emma Tomalin, University of Leeds, UK
Nathan Loewen, University of Alabama, USA
Editorial board:
Carole Rakodi, University of Birmingham, UK
Gurharpal Singh, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
Jörg Haustein, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK
Christopher Duncanson-Hales, Saint Paul University, Canada
The Religion-Gender Nexus in Development
Policy and Practice Considerations
Nora Khalaf-Elledge
Religion and Gender-Based Violence
Global and Local Responses to Harmful Practices
Edited by Brenda Bartelink, Chia Longman, and Tamsin Bradley
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Research-in-Religion-and-Development/book-series/RRRD
Religion and Gender-Based
Violence
Global and Local Responses to Harmful
Practices
Edited by
Brenda Bartelink, Chia Longman,
and Tamsin Bradley
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Brenda Bartelink, Chia Longman
and Tamsin Bradley; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Brenda Bartelink, Chia Longman and Tamsin Bradley to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-15870-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-15872-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-24604-6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003246046
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Contents
List of Contributors vii
Acknowledgements xi
1 Gender, Religion, and Harm: Conceptual and Methodological
Reflections 1
BRENDA BARTELINK, CHIA LONGMAN, AND TAMSIN BRADLEY
2 The Impact of COVID on Efforts to Reduce FGM and Child
Marriage: Understanding the Intersections Between Religion,
Gender, and Culture 26
TAMSIN BRADLEY AND JANE RITA MEME
3 Cousin Marriage Among Turkish and Moroccan Dutch:
Debates on Medical Risk and Forced Marriage 44
OKA STORMS AND EDIEN BARTELS
4 The Implications of the Securitisation of Mosques for
Transformative Masculine Attitudes Towards Harmful
Cultural Practices in the UK 66
TAMSIN BRADLEY AND OTTIS MUBAIWA
5 Izzat and Forced Marriage in the Constructing of Cultural and
Religious Identities in the UK 83
SUKHBINDER HAMILTON
6 Harm and Consent in the Socio-Legal Perspectives on Child
Marriage in Iran 100
LADAN RAHBARI
vi Contents
7 Understanding the Nexus of Religion, Secularism, and the
Harms of Women’s Mandatory Un/Covering 115
SARAH FISCHER
8 Normative Violence, Traditional Healing, and Harm
Regarding Same-Sex Relations Among Women in Mozambique 133
MARIA JUDITE CHIPENEMBE, CHIA LONGMAN, AND GILY COENE
9 The Contradictory Role of the Protestant Church in Changing
Female Genital Cutting Among the Maasai: An Ethnographic
Exploration 158
HANNELORE VAN BAVEL
10 So Is It All Just About Sex? Religion and Recognising
Harmful Practices in the Need to Control Female Sexuality 177
ELISABET LE ROUX
11 ‘Faith-full’ Reflections from a Civically Minded, Radically
Inclusive, Other 190
AZZA KARAM
Index 195
Contributors
Brenda Bartelink is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Theology and
Religious Studies of the University of Groningen and a fellow and research
cluster convenor at the Centre for Religion, Conflict and Globalization. Her
research focusses on the intersections of religion, secularity, health, gender
and sexuality. Much of her work focusses on women’s agency in the context
of the cultural encounters around gender and sexuality between religious and
secular actors in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Western Europe. She has pub-
lished various book chapters and articles on topics such as sexuality education,
embodiment, women’s agency and leadership, African Pentecostalism, gender
and development and gender -based violence and harmful practices.
Edien Bartels studied cultural anthropology at the VU Amsterdam; conducted
anthropological fieldwork in North Africa, Morocco and Tunisia, and with
Moroccan migrants in the Netherlands; completed her PhD thesis entitled ‘Éen
dochter is beter dan duizend zonen’. Arabische vrouwen, symbolen en machtsver-
houdingen tussen de seksen (‘One daughter is better than a thousand sons.’ Arab
women, symbols and power ship between the sexes) in 1993. Her subsequent
publications include numerous articles and reports on young migrants; on
Muslims in the Netherlands and in Morocco; on female circumcision, mar-
riage, and abandoned women and children; on intercultural social care and
psychiatry; on Islam in the Netherlands and in Sarajevo; and on dependent
stay and partner violence among Moroccan Marriage migrant women in the
Netherlands. Currently, she is retired senior researcher in the Department of
Social and Cultural Anthropology of the VU University of Amsterdam.
Hannelore Van Bavel is a senior research associate in the School of Sociology,
Politics, and International Studies and the Department of Anthropology at
the University of Bristol, UK. Her research interests lie at the nexus of m edical
anthropology and postcolonial feminist theory. She has carried out extensive
research on colonial continuities in gender and development policies and
projects, with a focus on the transnational campaign against ‘female genital
mutilation’.
viii Contributors
Tamsin Bradley is a professor of international development studies at the Uni-
versity of Portsmouth. Her research interests are in ending violence against
women and girls, promoting social inclusion and stopping harmful cultural
practices (including female genital mutilation [FGM], forced marriage and
breast ironing).
Maria Judite Chipenembe holds a PhD in gender and diversity studies from the
University of Ghent and the Free University of Brussels. She has been working
as an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Eduardo Mondlane
University, Maputo, since 2004. She is interested in researching topics related
to poverty, gender diversity, human rights and sexual and reproductive health
in Sub-Saharan Africa. She recently published a book chapter ‘Eu sou ela/ele:
transgender and gender fluidity in Mozambique’ (Brill, 2021).
Gily Coene is a professor of ethics and feminist philosophy at the Vrije
Universiteit Brussel and director of the RHEA Research Centre on Gender,
Diversity and Intersectionality. Her recent research is mainly concentrated on
feminist bio-ethics, gender-based violence and reproductive rights in European
and non-European contexts.
Sarah Fischer is an assistant professor at Marymount University in Arlington,
Virginia. She earned her PhD from American University in Washington,
D.C. Her research examines discrimination against women in Turkey and
women’s responses to discrimination. She attended Iowa State University, Koç
University and Boğaziçi University.
Sukhbinder Hamilton is a senior lecturer in the School of Education and
Sociology at the University of Portsmouth on a range of undergraduate and
postgraduate provisions. Her professional background is within the field
of Special Educational Needs and Social Emotional Behavioural Difficul-
ties (SEBD) in particular and has worked as a teacher, a special educational
needs coordinator (SENCO) and an independent inclusion consultant prior
to joining the University of Portsmouth. Sukh’s academic expertise (and doc-
toral research) is related to gender and specifically looking at British Indian,
Pakistani and Bangladeshi women. She also has expertise within the field
of child’s voice and bereavement. She is a co-convenor for ‘The Women’s
Workshop Sociological Collective’ and is also a fellow of the Higher Educa-
tion Academy, UK.
Azza Karam serves as the secretary-general of Religions for Peace – the largest
multi-religious leadership platform with 92 national and 6 regional interre-
ligious councils. She also holds a professorship of religion and development
at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (the Netherlands). She has served
in different positions in the United Nations since 2004. Her last posts were
senior advisor on Culture, at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
and founder and convenor of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on
Religion and Development.
Contributors ix
Chia Longman completed her PhD in 2002 in comparative sciences of culture.
She is an associate professor of gender studies in the Department of Languages
and Cultures, Ghent University, Belgium. She directs the Centre for Research
on Culture and Gender (CRCG). Her primary research focus is women’s iden-
tity and agency within different religious communities and movements in Eu-
rope, ranging from Orthodox Judaism to new spiritualities. Her publications
include Interrogating Harmful Cultural Practices: Gender, Culture and Coercion
( Routledge, 2015, with T. Bradley) and Féminisme et multiculturalisme. Les
paradoxes du debat (Peter Lang, 2010, with G. Coene) and various book c hapters
and articles in journals such as Citizenship Studies; Ethnicities; European Journal
of Women’s Studies; Gender, Place & Culture; Politics & Gender; Religion &
Gender; Religions; Social Anthropology; Social Compass; and Women’s Studies
International Forum.
Jane Rita Meme is an international development consultant with more than
25 years of experience in the development sector. Meme’s M&E and Gender
experience emanates from years of senior management roles in the interna-
tional development sector overseeing development programmes and providing
short-term technical assistance to various technical assistance programmes as
a consultant. She has extensive skills and experience in project cycle man-
agement, working with logical and results frameworks, and has technical and
management programming expertise in development programmes targeting
poor and marginalised groups/communities. She is also a skilled qualitative
researcher adept at utilising mixed and participatory research methods besides
possessing skills and experience in gender transformative approaches that pro-
mote integration, social inclusion and stakeholder participation. Jane is pas-
sionate about gender equality and children and women’s rights, and enjoys
contributing to programmes that deliver meaningful change that empowers
women, girls and communities to uphold their right to decent lives while
achieving their personal and development aspirations. Jane holds a master’s
degree in project planning and management from the University of Nairobi
and a degree in anthropology and sociology from Moi University Eldoret.
Ottis Mubaiwa is a teaching fellow in international development studies at
the University of Portsmouth. He is a social anthropologist who researches
violence against women and girls, gender inclusion and the intersections of
culture and development.
Ladan Rahbari, PhD Mult., is a political sociologist and an assistant professor
in the Department of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam, and a senior
researcher at the International Migration Institute (IMI). She was formerly
based in Ghent University, Belgium, as the recipient of an FWO post- doctoral
fellowship (2019–2022). She is a member of Amsterdam Young Academy
(2021–2026). Rahbari’s research interests include gender politics, migration,
religion, body and digital media, with a general focus on Iran and Western
Europe, and in the frameworks of postcolonial, feminist and critical theories.
