By Saio Marrah
A group calling itself Men’s Association on Gender Equality in Sierra Leone (MAGESL) has concluded a dialogue session with religious and traditional Leaders on gender justice and women’s rights promotions in Sierra Leone.
Speaking to the media in Freetown, the Executive Director of MAGESL, Tamba David Mackieu, said the dialogue is aimed at working with religious and traditional leaders to reflect what they have done in the fight against violence against women and girls, assess the successes made in dealing with sexual violence against women and girls and also come to the drawing board to determine what should be done since the phenomenon is on the increase.
He said: “The past and present governments have made lots of laws and have even improved on the Sexual Offences Act, with penalties including fines and imprisonment but with all these, there is still violence.”
Mackieu said the religious leaders may tell them if when preaching in their respective churches and mosques they can talk about the implementation the of the laws while the traditional leaders should know the type of cases they are supposed to handle and those they should refer to the police or the Legal Aid Board.
The former President of the Inter Religious Council and Acting president of Sierra Leone Muslim Mission Congress, Shekh Abubakarr Conteh said Islam elevates the status of women. He said the Quran, has 114 Surahs or chapters with one called ‘Suratul Nisah,’ the surah of women.
He said this is to demonstrate how vital women are to society and how important they are in the political, social, economic and spiritual areas.
He said he was looking forward to both Christian and Muslim leaders to come together and to sensitize and educate their followers on the need for collaboration and unity among people.
The General Overseer of the Congressional Evangelical-Sierra Leone, the Rev, Christiana Sutton-Koroma, said in the past, Religious leaders have not been considered in general matters of society because, according to her, decision-makers mostly thought religious leaders had no say in such matters. But she said religious leaders engage a wider community than any political party.
She said during the Ebola outbreak in 2014, with the support of the NGO, Focus 1000 religious leaders played a role in educating the people in fighting the disease using the Bible and the Quran.
The engagement held on Wednesday 24th February is part of a project being rolled out by the MAGESL on Gender Justice for Women’s Rights promotion in Sierra Leone.
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