美国国家公共电台 NPR Muslim Sex Educators Forge Their Own #MeToo Movement

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

#MeToo movement has given voice to people who've experienced sexual abuse. But a group of young Muslims had created its own #MeToo movement even before it had a name. From Los Angeles, Josie Huang of member station KPCC reports.

JOSIE HUANG, BYLINE¹: For more than a decade, Homam Almahdi kept a secret from the world - that when he was 8, he'd been sexually abused by a family friend.

HOMAM ALMAHDI: Growing up, I kind of believed that sexual violence was just, in general, like, a Western concept - like it doesn't happen to people who are Muslim. If you are spiritual enough, God will protect you from evil.

HUANG: He wondered, had he been spiritual enough? Had he deserved it?

ALMAHDI: Because the perpetrator was Muslim, I was confused.

HUANG: Almahdi is the oldest of four kids in a Syrian-American family from West LA. He didn't realize he'd been assaulted until he took sexual health classes in middle school. And it wasn't until his freshman² year at the University of California, Irvine that he wrote an account of what had happened.

ALMAHDI: It just kind of was in my computer. And I was like, it's my thing I have to be shameful³ about.

HUANG: But then, as a sophomore⁴, he took a workshop on sexual abuse in the Muslim community. It was put on by a group called HEART Women & Girls. All its sex educators are Muslim. And that, Almahdi says, changed his life.

ALMAHDI: It was really emotional for me 'cause I hadn't ever experienced an event like that, where somebody who was Muslim-identifying kind of knew what I had been through.

HUANG: HEART educators have been doing this kind of work for almost a decade.

SAHAR PIRZADA: We're going to be talking about different phrases that are used in the community to oftentimes victim blame.

HUANG: Sahar Pirzada leads HEART workshops throughout Southern California. On this day, she faces a room of Muslim 20-somethings in downtown Los Angeles. She says some Muslims have extra concerns about reporting abuse.

PIRZADA: Who's going to marry me? Or like, what will people think? Is this going to bring shame to my family?

HUANG: Many survivors⁵ also worry about perpetuating⁷ stereotypes⁸ against Muslims.

PIRZADA: Some things that they might be thinking about are, will this just make people be more Islamophobic and think that I'm experiencing this because I'm Muslim?

HUANG: Pirzada came to do this outreach work because of her own difficulties getting proper attention for sexual health issues. She recalls how a white counselor⁹ saw her hijab and presumed her problems must have stemmed from Islam.

PIRZADA: It was just one of those experiences where you're like, are you really making these assumptions about, like, oh, well, maybe it's because your culture doesn't believe in this? Like, that was literally¹⁰ part of the verbiage¹¹ that was used in my therapy session.

HUANG: Part of HEART's work is giving non-Muslim counselors¹² the cultural context so they can treat Muslim clients. That's a big concern for Najeeba Syeed. She teaches at the Claremont School of Theology. She says it's important to recognize that abandoning one's faith is not the solution for many survivors.

NAJEEBA SYEED: Very often, I would hear, well, why don't these people just leave their religious tradition?

HUANG: Syeed says, here's the thing about religion, it can be a source of pain and comfort.

SYEED: For so many, that religious tradition is tied to their culture, to their language. It's where they feel at home.

HUANG: For abuse survivor⁶ Homam Almahdi, he never wanted to leave this home. His faith got him through the trauma¹³ of being sexually abused by another Muslim.

ALMAHDI: My experience helped me rely on a higher power because I just admitted this is something I can't really deal with, and I want God to help me with it. That's how I think my faith became stronger.

HUANG: After attending the HEART workshop, he told his family and close friends what had happened. And these days, he volunteers for the group because he doesn't want any Muslim brother or sister who went through what he had to ever feel alone. For NPR News, I'm Josie Huang in Los Angeles.

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1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

3 shameful   

adj.可耻的，不道德的

参考例句：

• It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己，真不害臊。
• We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。

4 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

5 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

6 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

7 perpetuating   

perpetuate的现在进行式

参考例句：

• Revenge leads to a self-perpetuating cycle of violence. 怨怨相报会导致永不休止的暴力。
• It'set out to eradicate heresy, and ended by perpetuating it. 它的目的只是要根除异端邪说，结果却巩固了异端邪说。 来自英汉文学

8 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

10 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

11 verbiage   

n.冗词；冗长

参考例句：

• Stripped of their pretentious verbiage,his statements come dangerously close to inviting racial hatred.抛开那些夸大其词的冗词赘语不论，他的言论有挑起种族仇恨的危险。
• Even in little 140-character bites,that's a lot of verbiage.即使限制在一条140个字也有很大一部分是废话。

12 counselors   

n.顾问( counselor的名词复数 )；律师；（使馆等的）参赞；（协助学生解决问题的）指导老师

参考例句：

• Counselors began an inquiry into industrial needs. 顾问们开始调查工业方面的需要。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We have experienced counselors available day and night. ) 这里有经验的法律顾问全天候值班。） 来自超越目标英语 第4册

13 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。