By Ochaka Leonard

Religion generally means the belief in and worship of supernatural powers or powers. Religion and morality are closely intertwined disciplines, and separating them may not be possible because subscribing to Religion requires an individual to embrace certain beliefs and practices; these beliefs and practices vary in different Religions and are grounded on moral values. 

Therefore, it is assumed that a religious person is essentially honest and that morality cannot exist without Religion. 

For a long time, Religion was seen in Africa as a major cause of sexual and gender-based violence because African traditional Religion, as a precursor religion in Africa, embraced tenets that were more hostile to the female gender because it was more culturally oriented. 

Therefore, it adopted various cultural beliefs and practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), which were more harmful to women and girls. 

Similarly, it considered men to be superior as compared to women. 

The government and various humanitarian organisations have been working so hard to alleviate certain practices of African Traditional Religion up to date. 

However, it is worth noting that the introduction of major world religions like Christianity and Islam Religion in Africa was the hallmark of the fight and campaign against sexual and gender-based violence because their teachings were totally against the tenets of African Traditional Religion, which was more hostile to the female gender. 

Christianity, for instance, advocated for equality for all people regardless of gender and other orientations. However, this was contrary to tenets of traditional African Religion in which a man was regarded as superior to a woman. 

Even though not all religious beliefs and practices may be moral, embracing religious beliefs and practices from a liberal perspective can be very beneficial in promoting social order in society.

This is because various holy books like the Bible and the Qur’an have teachings which can be very beneficial in subduing sexual and gender-based violence if the majority of people can manage to embrace such teachings. 

Therefore, to improve the effectiveness of Religion in the fight against SGBV, the following interventions should be done:

• Training religious leaders on gender-based issues
• creating multi-religious GBV centres where the masses can receive assistance
• Provide counselling services to victims of GBV at the existing religious institutions
• provision of information in GBV issues based on sacred scriptures and teachings

Ochaka Leonard is a Youth Advocate at NAYA Kenya