Posted on 08/16/2010 8:05:56 PM PDT by CharlesMartelsGhost
She was pencil-thin and so weak from mental and physical abuse, she needed help getting up stairs.
Her husband kept her under video surveillance 24 hours a day, a virtual prisoner in her own home, and once held a knife to her throat.
This Jordanian woman found refuge in the Surayya Anne Foundation home, Tulsa's only Muslim women's shelter. She is now separated from her husband, who remains in Tulsa, and is back with her family in Jordan.
Since it opened in May 2009, the modest, three-bedroom, two-bath apartment in south Tulsa has housed 15 women, most of them Muslims, and their 10 children, some for a few days, others for a few months.
Some sought shelter because they were being abused by their husbands. Most were single mothers out of work who were evicted from their apartments. One was just released from prison and needed a place to live while she adjusted to life on the outside.
Volunteers from the Tulsa Muslim community support the women by taking them shopping or to doctors appointments, preparing food or providing baby-sitting. Rent, utilities and food are provided.
"We don't want a need to not be met," said Melek Oyludag, executive director and co-founder of the shelter.
"If we don't have the resources, we go find them." She said the shelter works closely with other social services agencies to provide needed services.
The Surayya Anne Foundation was named for a Turkish woman who established a network of women's shelters in Turkey.
From 2005 until 2007, Oyludag lived in Turkey, where she met that woman, and was inspired to do something similar in the United States.
"She built a phenomenal program," she said.
Oyludag said she and others who work with the women in the shelter are in a unique position to help them because they understand the differences between Islamic and Western cultures.
"We know how to be sensitive to these taboo areas," she said. "Some of these women come from a culture that doesn't talk about" domestic violence.
She said the shelter is a better place for Muslim women, because so many Christian-based shelters require church attendance or frown on Islam.
"We're different," she said. "We get to know them. It's like we're helping a family member."
And the shelter is more conducive to Islamic prayer.
Tonie is in the shelter with her son because of her ongoing health problems.
"It's like being back in a two-parent family," she said, because two mothers help each other with the children, share chores and cook and eat together as one family.
Mary Al-Khaldi is house mother for the women. She lives in a nearby apartment and is available day and night to assist them. She also enforces a curfew, granting exceptions for such things as outside work and Ramadan evening prayers.
"It's great to be able to assist these ladies," she said.
Al-Khaldi said she was raised in a Pentecostal home in Oklahoma and converted to Islam 25 years ago. Her older brother abused her mother and was killed by her younger brother.
She married an Iraqi she described as a radical Muslim. "It took me 10 years to figure that out," she said.
"When he struck me when I was with child, I left him, but I didn't leave Islam."
Board member Allison Moore said women in the shelter are required to work or go to school, unless they have just had a baby, and to set aside money in a savings account to help them get back on their feet when they leave the shelter.
She said the foundation is raising money to buy a four- to six-unit apartment complex that will enable it to expand its services to families in need, including husbands.
The current shelter operates on a $46,000 annual budget, most of it from the Tulsa Muslim community.
Original Print Headline: Foundation shelters women of faith
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Sherman 581-8398 bill.sherman@tulsaworld.com By BILL SHERMAN World Religion Writer
E-Edition Print Email Comment RSS Bookmark Share 2005 until 2007, Oyludag lived in Turkey, where she met that woman, and was inspired to do something similar in the United States.
"She built a phenomenal program," she said.
Oyludag said she and others who work with the women in the shelter are in a unique position to help them because they understand the differences between Islamic and Western cultures.
"We know how to be sensitive to these taboo areas," she said. "Some of these women come from a culture that doesn't talk about" domestic violence.
She said the shelter is a better place for Muslim women, because so many Christian-based shelters require church attendance or frown on Islam.
"We're different," she said. "We get to know them. It's like we're helping a family member."
And the shelter is more conducive to Islamic prayer.
Tonie is in the shelter with her son because of her ongoing health problems.
"It's like being back in a two-parent family," she said, because two mothers help each other with the children, share chores and cook and eat together as one family.
Mary Al-Khaldi is house mother for the women. She lives in a nearby apartment and is available day and night to assist them. She also enforces a curfew, granting exceptions for such things as outside work and Ramadan evening prayers.
"It's great to be able to assist these ladies," she said.
Al-Khaldi said she was raised in a Pentecostal home in Oklahoma and converted to Islam 25 years ago. Her older brother abused her mother and was killed by her younger brother.
She married an Iraqi she described as a radical Muslim. "It took me 10 years to figure that out," she said.
"When he struck me when I was with child, I left him, but I didn't leave Islam."
Board member Allison Moore said women in the shelter are required to work or go to school, unless they have just had a baby, and to set aside money in a savings account to help them get back on their feet when they leave the shelter.
She said the foundation is raising money to buy a four- to six-unit apartment complex that will enable it to expand its services to families in need, including husbands.
The current shelter operates on a $46,000 annual budget, most of it from the Tulsa Muslim community.
Are there any Muslim women that are not abused? This shelter must be huge!
The good thing is that we have IRAN, in the United Nations representing women’s rights. That ought to settle them down and give them a deep sigh of relief.
Islamaphobic women and care givers.
Too bad, she was brought up in the Truth and rejected it for a lie!
Welcome to Free Republic.
A friend of mine has been floating the idea of an Underground Railroad to spirit away abused Muslim women.
I suggest a similar, larger one be built on the “Mosque” site in NYC.
Damn fine idea. I’ve heard talk about it but nothing that can be substantiated; by necessity, it would have to be done VERY quietly.
It’s in Oklahoma, so I would be surprised if it had many people unless it also took those fleeing from Dallas, which has a large Muslim community.
There are quite a few Muslims in the OKC area due to OU being in Norman, just south of the city. Universities always have a lot of Muslims. They are students, doncha know. Um, yeah.
There are so many things wrong with her approach that I don’t know where to start. Yes these women need to be physically free from Islam but they also need to be spiritually free. Whom the SON has set free is free indeed!
actually there are a lot of Muslims in Oklahoma and Tulsa. A lot of refugees were settled there after the Gulf war I.
If you shop at 24 hour Walmart late at night, you’ll see them shopping...a lot of them are shy (the medical term of this is agorophobia) about going out in public in crowds. Often they can’t drive and their husbands have to take them to shop.
Yes we have had some non Muslims as well.
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