Article by:
Edwin Fernandez
COTABATO CITY – In celebration of Women’s Month, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), through its two major instrumentalities, is set to launch five “fatwa” or religious rulings on gender-based violence (GBV).
The Bangsamoro Darul Ifta (BDI) and Bangsamoro Women Commission (BWC) are leading the launch on March 8 of the “fatwa” aimed at ensuring women in BARMM are protected against violence and human trafficking.
On Monday, BDI Executive Director Mufti Abu Hurairah Udasan, assisted by BWC Chairperson Bainon Karon, announced in a statement that they officially signed the religious rulings that focused on violence against women, wife desertion and abandonment, husband forcing sexual relations with his wife, rape, and human trafficking.
It was a project supported by the United Nations Population Fund and the University Research Company (URC-Philippines).
Mufti Udasan said the Islamic rulings were organized and thoroughly reviewed by several Ulama or Muslim scholars from across the BARMM.
“Woman, in Islam, is highly respected and highly regarded,” Udasan said, adding that the rulings will greatly help women to address their concerns on incidents of violence.
On the other hand, Karon, a member of the Bangsamoro Parliament, said one of the most effective interventions to treating gender-based violence is through values transformation.
“(GBV) continues to happen precisely because perpetrators have surrendered their moral values and have allowed themselves to be influenced by evil,” Karon said.
She described “khutbas” (Islamic sermons) and the “fatwa” as “important medicines in our prescription for treating the ill.”
She said to prevent GBV from happening, the BARMM leadership and the public, in general, have to “strike at the moral fiber of every man by spreading the words of the Holy Qur’an and making them realize the consequences of their actions, both in their lifetime and in the hereafter.”
Karon also thanked URC-Philippines for its support in the development of the “khutbas” and “fatwas.”
URC-Philippine representative Cecilia Lantican said the project is a milestone in the BARMM as she vowed that the URC is dedicated to supporting the project in the coming years. (PNA)
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