In this episode, we speak to Hala Abdelnour, founder of the Institute of Nonviolence, about what drove her to create this institute and how you can get involved in the Global Citizen challenge which starts today, 25th November which also happens to be the international day for the elimination of violence against women.
You can find out more about The Institiute of Nonviolence at https://ionv.com.au/.
Or on socials:
https://www.facebook.com/Instituteofnonviolence/
https://www.instagram.com/i_o_n_v/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ionv/
The invisible woman project funded by our social enterprise's impact program promotes awareness and actions for women and gender-diverse people. To age with dignity, security, and safety. Find out more on justgoldwomen.net or on our socials @justgoldwomen.
Hosted by Kyriakos Gold.
Edited and produced by Carley Bishop.
This is a Just Gold podcast.
[00:00:00] Carley Bishop: This is a just gold podcast.
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[00:00:03] Carley Bishop: Captured on the lands of the peoples of the east Eastern Kulin nation. We pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
[00:00:28] In this episode of The Invisible Woman Podcast, we speak to Hala Abdelnour, founder of the Institute of Nonviolence, about what drove her to create this institute and how you can get involved in the Global Citizen Challenge, which starts today, the 25th of November, which also happens to be the International Day for the elimination of Violence against Women.
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[00:00:50] Hala Abdelnour: Name is Hala Abdelnour. Was born in Lebanon. I migrated to Australia when I was nine years old. Lived in Melbourne most of my life I've traveled to more than 50 countries, and I currently live in Sydney, on Dar Royal country.
[00:01:03] So in 2020, Almost two years ago, on the 25th of November, 2020, I launched the Institute of Nonviolence I was basically creating a space to address family violence response in a way that I was noticing was important and missing in the space. So I felt that we needed programs and frameworks and approaches that were more intersect.
[00:01:30] Or incorporated intersectional feminism, but also frameworks that address the shame and trauma and other lived experiences that are intertwined in the broader experience of family violence and gender violence. And so we launched the Institute. We work closely with clinicians and practitioners who are client facing family advance.
[00:01:52] We work with organizations, we consult with government around policy and guidelines for the work, and we also work with corporations and organizations in general around gender equity training and anti-racism training
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[00:02:06] Hala Abdelnour: So when we launched the Institute of Nonviolence, We created three pillars for the business.
[00:02:12] One pillar is education. So through that we develop professional training programs and they are either for client facing practitioners, but also for employees in any organization around equity and inclusion, gender and family, va. The other pillar is clinical, so that's where we do our direct services with anyone who's using family, VA or also.
[00:02:37] The clinical supervision with men's behavior change facilitators. And the third pillar is social engagement. And through our social side of things, we use social media quite a bit and spaces like conferences and forums and webinars and seminars to have a conversation with the public we're creating a space to have a conversation around gender based violence, gender equality, anti-racism, family violence, all very confronting topics. And we are we're aware that there's a lot to take in, there's a lot of jargon and language being thrown around.
[00:03:08] So I guess we try to have that conversation in a way that's inviting and in a way easier to understand and grasp some of those concepts cuz they're new and there's a lot to take on board. So we're just trying to have a conversation with the public about these things. And so we do invite people to connect with us via social media if they wanna be part of the conversation.
[00:03:29] We've got a website, www.ionv.com.au And that's got access to all of our social media channels as well as a contact way and our services that we provide. I guess organizations that are interested in some of the gender equity and anti-racism work we're doing, or family violence training that we do could get in touch with us through that as well.
[00:03:49] I have been working in the family violence sector for a few years and I noticed that a lot of the organizations that are addressing violence have the word violence in their titles.
[00:04:00] So I really wanted to, from the point of the title, talk about nonviolence and the colors we chose reflect some of that as well. So we use orange, which is the international color to end violence against women. So Orange World is the theme for the 16 days of activism campaign, which we get involved with every year.
[00:04:20] And we actually launched our business on the 25th of November, which is the first day of the 16 days. And also the international data eliminate violence against women. So we thought about it quite a bit in terms. What's the messaging that we wanna put out? The other color of the business is teal.
[00:04:36] Coincidentally, I'm wearing teal today. And teal is a color of inward reflection. So orange is very outward. It's quite an energetic color, and it's, again, it's used for nonviolence. Teal is very reflective, it's very inward. It's about going deep down inside ourselves and unpacking whether it's our own embodied shame, trauma, ideologies that aren't helpful, our.
[00:04:59] Internalized violence, condoning narratives, and and I guess they, they're the two balancing colors and concepts that we work with. It's about inward reflection and outward change, behavior change, we launched on the 25th, which means we're very busy every year from on the 25th of November, celebrating our birthday, our launch and getting ready for the 16 days of activism campaign.
[00:05:21] Couple of things we do is we encourage the clients we work with to take on the Global Citizens Challenge. So it's hashtag 16 days challenge. And that's basically about doing something different, doing 16 different things every day for the 16 days. And the most important part of any social media driven campaign really is to document it and post about it.
[00:05:44] So using the hashtag you could wear. Every day or one day take photos. You could read new sources find information look up the history of the 16 days why it started, what it's about, who runs it. There's a lot of information and I guess also finding out a bit more about what gender based violence is.
[00:06:04] Even engaging with organizations like ours and others in the space that are talking about these things just. Expanding your network and understanding of these things. And then I guess most importantly, whatever you learn is about sharing it in your own private circles, whether it's at work or at home or out in society.
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[00:06:27] Carley Bishop: We asked Har if she has ever considered the notion of becoming invisible as she gets older and how she feels about that.
[00:06:33] Hala Abdelnour: I'm definitely noticing that I'm in a period of my where I'm transitioning age-wise from being very visible as a woman.
[00:06:41] I'm not yet invisible, but I'm definitely aware that things are changing and for the most part I've been looking forward to being more invisible in the sense that. A lot of the attention that you can attract as a woman in the world is probably uninvited and not necessarily the attention you'd like to have.
[00:06:59] So I guess if I had the same level of attention for my intellect, my ideas, my creativity, my kindness or generosity, my care as I do in the sense of being sexualized, which is really what invisible and visible is all about, the way women are sexualized and objectified in the. , it makes you look forward in a way.
[00:07:18] It makes me look forward to the invisibility so that I could just be a person, I guess with the invisibility would come probably an equal level of whether you're taken seriously or not in professional realms. Because when you're visible and being sexualized, you're not exactly being taken seriously for other things you offer, and when you become invisible in the sense that you're not really sexualized.
[00:07:40] Maybe your opinion starts to matter, maybe it doesn't. I don't really know yet. But yeah, I guess it's the objectification and sexualization of women in general in society spooked so much by advertising and mass media is a huge driver of various forms of violence, gender based violence fac.
[00:08:02] Family violence and not just violence against women and girls, but also even homophobia, transphobia, men's violence against other men as well who are too feminine. These are the things that we are working towards changing, I guess.
[00:08:16] Carley Bishop: The invisible woman project funded by our social enterprises impact program promotes awareness and actions for women and gender diverse people. To age with dignity, security, and safety. Find out more on justgoldwomen.net or on our socials justgoldwomen