A migrant who has spent more than a decade campaigning to end family violence in faith and diverse communities is the ‘2025 AMES Australia Woman of Impact’.

Manal Shehab has put together a ground-breaking resource to tackle family violence in faith communities, while also establishing a not-for-profit agency to support victims of gender abuse and violence.

Manal was born in Egypt and migrated to Australia with her parents in 1970. Her passion for her work came out of her own experiences.

“Growing up I was seeing women across all cultures experiencing abuse and violence. I was living in St Kilda and Richmond, which were diverse communities,” Manal said.

“l became more and more aware of the issue of family violence through the lenses of culture and faith and, as a Muslim, I released that Islam doesn’t validate or condone violence, on the contrary Islam condemns it in the highest form and promotes respect of women and children.

“And yet faith leaders, of many faiths, were using negative messages from their sacred documents to discriminate against women. They were weaponising religion to make women stay at home, putting up with the abuse or to just stay in the background,” she said.

Manal’s own experience of gender violence was a further catalyst to her advocacy.

“My own experience of violence and the victim blaming, guilt and shame, as well as the gross misinterpretations of sacred text, all had an impact,” she said.

As a result, Manal connected with women from other faiths to make a stand.

“I banded with a group of women from different faiths; Jewish, Buddhist, and the Catholic and Uniting churches. We had similar experiences and ideas around family violence from a faith perspective,” she said.

This led to a grant from Victoria’s Department of Premier and Cabinet to create family violence training and awareness resources for Faith Communities.

“I realised there was a gap in resources in plain language across all faiths and I wanted to put together some resources for all faiths,” Manal said.

The result was ‘A Faith Leaders Practice Guide and Toolkit; Preventing and Responding to Family Violence’.  Faith-Leaders-Practice-Guide.pdf

The resource was launched by Victoria’s Minister for Women Gabrielle Williams in 2022.

“It’s been a beautiful journey, however not without challenges and push backs.  I had to learn that shifting mindsets and challenging people’s entrenched belief systems takes time. We wanted to create something accessible to everyone, including the patriarchy and people using violence themselves,” Manal said.

“I knew we had to bring everyone to the table, so we took out the pejorative language from the whole. We took out the word ‘perpetrator’ and the language of gender.

“I talked about ‘traditions’ and ‘sacred texts’, so we weren’t pointing out any particular community or faith.

“There as pushback against this but eventually we got there.

“The result is an easy to read and use that pulls together all of the work already done and that puts victim survivors and children at the centre. It was a proud moment,” she said.

Manal has also founded the not-for-profit support group Sisters4Sisters https://s4s.org.au/ 

The agency takes an holistic approach to the physical, mental, psychological and emotional wellbeing of women. It employs an integrated person-centred, strengths-based practice.

The S4S team represents members from Victoria’s culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse communities.

Its mission is to create a platform for women to find success and happiness through a range of educational and informative workshops; training; forums; getaways and talking circles.

“Sisters4Sisters came out of other need for something to support women from faith and diverse communities who struggle with family and gender violence,” Manal said.

“It’s important these women get support from people understand their situations and who have lived experience and the training to be able to help.

“Many of the women we see say they don’t know where to go or what to do. Sisters4Sisters helps address this and many of the women who come through our program give back by volunteering to help others.”

Manal says underpinning all of her work is validating the victims of family violence.

“It’s about giving permission and validation to people; it’s about creating a space where we give permission for that person to matter,” she said.

“What we’ve done is create a space where people share their stories, resonate and talk,” she said.

Manal took part in a Prevention of Violence Against Women (PVAW) program run by migrant and refugee settlement agency AMES Australia in 2018.

AMES PVAW coordinator Wendy Lobwein said Manal was truly a woman of impact.

“Manal has been an extraordinary advocate for women, families, and ending family violence, particularly as it impacts people of Islamic faith,” Wendy said.

The ‘AMES Australia Woman of Impact’ award recognises women from newly arrived migrant and refugee communities who are supporting individuals and communities to build successful lives in Australia.

Celebrating International Womens’ Day, the award recognises people who go above and beyond the call of duty make differences in lives of people striving to establish themselves in Australia.

It values the impact that volunteering and strengths-based capacity building can have on individuals and communities; as well as the importance of fostering connections within and between diverse communities in Australia.