NISA’s Annual Fundraiser Held in Santa Clara
By Ali Hasan CemendtaurBy By B
A view of the NISA Fundraiser |
Home, Sweet Home! An old, beautiful song that captures the essence of our feelings towards our favorite place in the world. But what if a household is marred by violence, what if a home is living hell for some members of the family?
According to NISA (North American Islamic Shelter for Abused), a non-profit organization working to alleviate suffering of victims of domestic violence, this dreadful reality is true for roughly 30% of Muslim households -- the larger American society has a similar percentage of violent households.
Whereas in theory domestic violence can include a lot of different relationships (between sons and daughters, son and mother, daughter and father, and others) the terminology is almost exclusively reserved for cases involving husbands and wives -- and an overwhelming majority (80%-90%) of domestic violence (DV) cases involve husbands being violent towards wives.
Since many Muslim families are new immigrants to the US, a large number of Muslim victims of domestic violence in this country are neither aware of their rights, nor have any ideas about alternatives available to them. These victims get regularly beaten up by their partners and learn to live a compromising, miserable life. And that is where NISA and other organizations working on the issue of domestic violence come into the picture. These organizations believe that society’s greater awareness about domestic violence, and household members’ better education about their rights and options, can rescue a lot of suffering people.
Compared to other mainstream organizations working on the issue of domestic violence, NISA’s added challenge is to deal with a conservative group that is not too receptive of a dialogue on this discomforting topic. NISA volunteers have proved that their organization is here to stay. Last Saturday, NISA held its annual fundraiser at Santa Clara Marriott. Saba Ghori, board member of Domestic Violence Resource Project of Maryland, and Rolanda Pierre-Dixon, Deputy District Attorney for Santa Clara County, were the two main speakers of the evening. NISA is raising funds to establish a shelter in San Francisco Bay Area, for battered Muslim women.
For more information on NISA and its programs, please visit their web site at: http://www.ask-nisa.org
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