Event: Online Zoom Forum: Domestic Abuse and Gender-based Violence: Spiritual, Social, and Policy Perspectives.
Chair: Dr Lesley Orr is an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Theology and Public Issues (CTPI) New College, University of Edinburgh, and has previously held appointments at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. She is a historian of gender, feminism, religion and social movements in 20th century Scotland. Lesley has a longstanding commitment to challenging gender injustice, abuse and violence against women – in Scotland and internationally. She has extensive research, training and consultancy experience, working with the Scottish Government and the women’s sector including Zero Tolerance, Rape Crisis and Scottish Women’s Aid, and teaches on an innovative ‘gender justice and violence’ course at Queen Margaret University. Much of her work focuses on challenging gender inequality, violence and abuse in faith communities and wider society, and she has written on these issues for a range of publications. She coordinated an action-research project for CTPI: Out of the Shadows: Christianity and Violence Against Women in Scotland (1995-97). She has been chair of the Zero Tolerance Trust, edited ‘Living Theology to Counter Violence Against Women’ – a major report for the Church of Scotland (2014), and was consultant to the World Council of Churches Decade to Overcome Violence 2001-2010.
Speakers: Fatou Gitteh Cham, Lily Greenan, Anila Mizra, Iris Quar, Kay Steven.
Fatou Gitteh Cham is a 60-year-old African woman from the Gambia West Africa. Mother of 7 children - 4 boys, 3 girls - and a grandmother of 11 grandchildren - 5 boys and 6 girls.
She is an asylum seeker who studied Health and Social Care Level 6 and is currently doing an HNC Working with Communities with Glasgow Kelvin College due to be completed this June.
Fatou is passionate about community work, has campaigned tirelessly about gender-based violence across Scotland and she also belongs to several community groups in Glasgow, including Saheliya Champions for Change. Fatou sits on few committees including GAMSCA, Community Info Source, and she is also a Public Relations Officer for AWCA (African Caribbean Women’s Association in Glasgow).
Lily Greenan has been a feminist activist for over thirty years, from 1981, particularly being committed to ending violence against women. During this time she has worked with a variety of organisations with this aim including: Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, the Incest Survivors Group and the Ritual Abuse Survivors. She worked as a project manager on the EVA Project in Lanarkshire. She is the Director of Scottish Women’s Aid, having previously been manager there since 2006.
She has also worked on strategy and policy looking at violence towards women. She chaired the Promoting Women’s Safety Working Group in Edinburgh whilst she worked as the city’s first development worker at the Rape Crisis Centre. Later she was key to the development of the Scottish Rape Crisis Network, which she then represented in the Scottish Partnership on Domestic Abuse. She was part of the North Lanarkshire Domestic Abuse Working Group and following this wrote a literature review on Violence Against Women. She was involved in developing the first National Strategy to Address Domestic Abuse in Scotland and was also part of the Expert Committee on Violence Against Women which drafted a strategic framework. She sits on the National Group to Address Violence Against Women.
Anila Mirza has worked for Shakti Women’s Aid since 2005 and is the Team Leader of the Outreach Service. She has worked closely with women who have no recourse to public funds and campaigns to promote women’s rights, justice, and equality for all women. She has an in-depth knowledge of issues related to BME migrant women. Throughout her 16 years at Shakti, she has been involved in delivering and organizing various projects, including training sessions and conferences to raise awareness about challenges faced by BME women. She is the project initiator and co-editor of ‘Real Women: Unheard Stories-based on true stories of women supported by Shakti Women`s Aid.
Iris Quar: As a solicitor in private practice, Iris supported and advised female victims of domestic abuse. Most of her work was around seeking protective orders from court to protect the women and their children. Being concerned about the children who were impacted by domestic abuse and other family issues, Iris then spent eight years at the Scottish Child Law Centre supporting and representing children. Since late 2017 Iris has been the Services Manager at AMIS (Abused Men In Scotland). Scotland's only national organisation dedicated to supporting male victims of domestic abuse. Her time is spent supporting male victims and raising awareness of the issues faced by male victims of domestic abuse. In her free time, along with her husband, she is busily converting a semi-derelict pub into a family home.
Kay Steven is a researcher, trainer, and policy professional who has worked in the field of domestic abuse and violence against women for nine years. She has experience of developing several participation projects with children and young people experiencing domestic abuse which have directly influenced Scottish legislation and policy. She currently balances two part time roles as a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh on a project focusing on families experiencing domestic abuse, and a Policy Adviser working on equality and diversity in further and higher education. She has recently completed a Gender Studies MSc where her dissertation research focused on Christian women's experiences of domestic abuse.
Date: Wednesday 9 June 2021.
Time: Online Zoom Forum: 7pm-8.45pm (UK time).
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Cost: £5/£3 (Concessions)/£1 (Students). For a Registration Form:
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., 0131 331 4469.