FED:Aust Muslim women get human rights centre

AAP General News (Australia)
04-13-2011
FED:Aust Muslim women get human rights centre

By Edwina Scott

MELBOURNE, April 13 AAP - Australian Muslim women now have a dedicated centre set up
to give them advice and tackle issues of disadvantage and inequality bearing on their
lives.

The new national organisation based in Melbourne will focus on problems that particularly
affect Muslim women across Australia, including racism, domestic violence and exclusion
from the workforce.

Australian Muslim Women's Centre for Human Rights executive director Joumanah El Matrah
says some inequalities encountered by Muslim women are unique and require a special place
where they can find assistance.

The centre will be run by the Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria and be staffed
by Muslim women, bringing Australia into line with similar international human rights
movements.

"This puts to rest the fallacy that human rights and Islam are incompatible or any
suggestion that Muslim women, because of their faith, cannot be equal to men," Ms El Matrah
said.

Catherine Branson QC, president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, likened
the struggle for human rights by many marginalised women to breaking a concrete skirting
board.

"It is that difficult," Ms Branson said at the launch of the centre on Wednesday.

"Women's rights are human rights, but not all women are struggling for the same rights."

In another step towards community harmony, federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland
visited a youth centre in Melbourne's northwest which is preparing a mentoring program
to deter young people from developing extremist ideologies.

The Hume City Council area has people from more than 140 countries who speak more than
125 different languages.

Mr McClelland said the council had sought a grant from the federal government to develop
the project, but he denied it was targeted specifically at Muslim youths.

"Nineteen people (have been) convicted of terrorist offences in Australia, the majority
of those were born in Australia," Mr McClelland told reporters.

"These issues are broader than any specific community."

Funding of $200,000 would encourage positive participation in the community, he said.

The Hume Anti-Violent Extremism Youth Project is scheduled to begin in May.

AAP ees/mn/jl

KEYWORD: MUSLIMS VIC (PIX AVAILABLE)

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