Mental health & Beliefs on Black Magic/Jinn

This project looks at the health and well-being of Muslim and minority ethnic women.

Over six months, Amina MWRC ran workshops with women of faith in Glasgow to understand the health and well-being of Muslim/Black and minority ethnic women and the connection people form regarding mental ill health and jinn and black magic. For example, in the BME community, mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia are treated as the result of being possessed by Jinn or someone having done black magic or cast the evil eye on them. This limits the professional medical help that can be given to the individual that is suffering. The workshops we ran helped us to better understand the extent to which this impacts the women in the BME community, as this is not a widely researched topic. The result of the workshops was an art exhibition entitled ‘A Knot A Day’ that included art and soundscapes created by the women involved. The exhibit toured Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh.

As a second phase to this project we are now continuing this research through partnership with UWS. 

This is ongoing research being conducted by University of the West of Scotland (UWS) and Amina MWRC under the auspices of the UWS-Oxfam Scotland Partnership. Part of this research includes a survey to gather information that can be used to inform decisions about how services are designed and implemented; to help ensure that members of the Muslim community are able to access the services they need, including mental health services, when they need them

Please fill in the survey to help us better understand the barriers: https://bit.ly/2MHEe3J