Arab American Family Services was fortunate to attend the National Association of Social Workers conference. AAFS co-founder Nareman Taha gave a presentation discussing domestic violence in the Arab American and Arab immigrant community.
AAFS was able to bring awareness to the Arab community and the common diseases of domestic violence, alcoholism, substance abuse and other issues that are plaguing the community.
An audience of over 150 people tuned in to the discussion. Their questions we regarding the Arab cultures and traditions and Islam. We learned that many people don’t know the difference between ARAB and ISLAM.
This proves to us that we need to do more work on cultural sensitivity and cultural awareness to educate people about the difference. Many people also believed that Islam promotes domestic violence, which also means we need to have people out in the community educating others on Islam.
AAFS hopes that with more opportunities to educate the community, we will be able to raise awareness to mainstream issues.
