Muslim Women's Network UK (MWNUK) is the only national Muslim women's organisation in Britain. They are a small national charity and work to improve the social justice and equality for Muslim women and girls. They have a membership of more than 700 individuals and organisations with a collective reach of tens of thousands of Muslim women. Their membership also includes women of others faiths and men who support their work.
MWNUK find out about the experiences of Muslim women and girls through research and helpline enquiries. They identify policy and practice gaps and use this information to inform decision makers in government (including at Ministerial level) and other other public bodies. Their knowledge about the issues faced by Muslim women and girls also inform community campaigns. They also develop resources and training so women and girls are better informed about their rights and how to access support and help.
The helpline is a national specialist faith and culturally sensitive service that is confidential and non-judgmental, which offers information, support, guidance and referrals. We also provide holistic in depth support via case-workers for complex cases where service users need ongoing support which could last weeks or months. The helpline also acts as an interface or conduit between the victims and other specialist that can also provide support. Although, our service users are primarily Muslim women and girls, we also provide support to men (5% of callers) and to women of other faiths and no faith (e.g. 4%).
We provide help on about 43 issues. Two thirds of our service users contact us about different forms of abuse such as domestic abuse, honour-based abuse, forced marriage, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, stalking and revenge porn. Most callers also contact us about more than one issue. Half of callers also want help for their mental health such as for anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, self harm, suicidal thoughts and loneliness. For these callers we are able to make internal referrals to our counselling service or to try and identify local services in their areas.