Bigger role for female religious teachers in fighting extremism

Their main role in the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) was to counsel the wives of Jemaah Islamiyah detainees, but with the advent of the Islamic State, female RRG counsellors are seeing more girls and young women influenced by extremist ideology, and now take on a bigger role in educating the masses.

Plans are afoot to expand the pool of female religious teachers in the group and enhance their role in its counter-ideology efforts. Nine of about 44 RRG members are women.

RRG, formed in 2003 and made up mostly of Islamic teachers and scholars, began recruiting female counsellors in 2005. The group’s vice-chair, Dr Mohamed Ali, said that besides engaging the wives and children of detainees and self-radicalised individuals, female religious teachers can also advise parents and guardians on how to steer their children away from the “dangers of extremist thoughts”. Ms Nur Irfani Saripi, 31, who has been part of RRG since 2008, said that on top of the Diploma in Counselling Psychology that all RRG members must have at the least, marriage counselling education could equip female counsellors to better deal with problems between spouses. NEO CHAI CHIN