Spiritual abuse is a form of psychological torment utilised by individuals who allege that they are mouthpieces for God, or a higher purpose. It is important to note that this abuse and its resulting trauma supersede any one religion, sect, or culture.

It is often contemplated in the context of children: in recent years, news headlines have been flooded with the exposure of and investigations into the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of children – particularly little boys – by figures of religious authority. The topic has even seeped into popular culture, as indicated by the success of novels such as Hanya Yanagihara’s “A Little Life," or films such as Spotlight. The recognition and validation of this uglier face of humanity, albeit late in the day, is important and necessary both for those who have experienced it and as a deterrent for individuals in positions of power and the systems that sustain them.

However, the puzzle remains incomplete. This tragedy also extends to and infringes upon the human rights of more than one group of victims. In this instance, the calamity of global spiritual abuse against women remains in the shadows.

WHAT IS IT?

Spiritual, or religious, abuse is defined as the act of creating a toxic culture by utilising a position of power in order to shame or control an individual. It can occur in a group setting, or within an intimate partner or familial relationship. The abuse is not limited to a certain religion or denomination. Any person, of any belief system, is capable of perpetrating spiritual abuse, just as anyone can be the victim of it. 

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in response to the surge in incidents of domestic violence in the UK, a joint statement was released by the #FaithsAgainstDomesticAbuse campaign, and signed by leading figures from many faith-based charities. It acknowledges the fact that “sadly, the ideal that our faiths provide does not always materialise. In all our communities, we hear reports not only of physical abuse…there are also instances of spiritual abuse, whereby abusers use religion to persuade people to stay with an abusive partner”.

The spiritual abuse of women is a long-sustained pandemic, however, which infects and invades perhaps the majority of communities worldwide. The system maintaining it pervades language, religious boundaries, borders, and even the intimacy of households. Those who consciously perpetuate the spiritual abuse of women have one common goal: psychological suppression or even torment, rooted in an alleged higher purpose, and therefore legitimised beyond this realm. It is the use of God, religion, or duty to manipulate, groom, and confine women, or to utilise them as scapegoats.  

It is separate to and more covert than the overused and over-exploited religious “oppression” of women dictated by the media. Instead, its ultimate result is to prevent women from accessing religion in its “true form” – in other words, to prevent them from questioning the more “spiritually advanced” abuser – and even the systems that are meant to save them can be complicit in perpetuating this.  

Spiritual abuse also differs from other forms of abuse due to the intimacy of the context in which it typically occurs, questioning of which is framed as undercutting the religion or way of life itself. The misquoting or manipulation of religious texts or precedents is a tactic commonly used to justify this behaviour, or to legitimise a stance of superiority. This is disheartening in itself, but when contextualised by the fact that in the most recent years for which data is available, young women accounted for 59 percent of the total illiterate youth population, it is devastating. Of the world’s 774 million illiterate adults in 2014, two-thirds were women.

This means that, due to illiteracy and the ensuing vulnerability it causes, adult and young women alike are less likely to be able to access religion in the same way as the male population. In instances of spiritual abuse or manipulation, it also means that they are not equipped to question the reasoning behind what is presented as testament by turning directly to the written doctrine or commentary. Instead, it is more likely that they will turn inwards and blame themselves for questioning what is presented as indisputable fact.

The abuse is so deep rooted and multi-layered that victims often do not realise they are subject to it. Entire systems are built upon it, and it is a covert by-product of toxic masculinity.

HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS

The impacts of spiritual abuse upon women specifically are multi-faceted, but the implications upon women’s mental health and freedom of religion appear to augment to the same overarching human rights abuse: hindering the right to access a religion.

Spiritual abuse has long term mental and physical health implications, which can result in Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS), a term originated by Dr Marlene Winell. It is described as “the condition experienced by people who are struggling with leaving an authoritarian, dogmatic religion and coping with the damage of indoctrination” whilst “going through the shattering of a personally meaningful faith and/or breaking away from a controlling community and lifestyle”. Symptoms include depression, anxiety, anger, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), loss of social network, information gaps, and unfamiliarity with the secular world, amongst others. Treatments tend to centre upon finding stability after one leaves their faith.

That the default position expected of the majority of women abused within the context of their faith is not only to escape the clutches of their abusers, but to reject religion or faith in its entirety, does not sit well. Women are seemingly forced to choose between two extremes: faithful and abused or protected and faithless. In most instances, it is the women who are expected – either by their former community, or by their allies in rehabilitation – to abandon an extensive fragment of their prior selves, communities, and comforts, and to embark upon a potential identity crisis – alone.

Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights enshrines the right to freedom of thought, belief, and religion. This right is typically implemented on a state(or institution)-to-individual basis. For instance, the right of citizens of a state to practice their religion, for students to don religious garments, and to prevent employers from discriminating against their employees. What if this right were to be implemented in the context of spiritual abuse, for instance, when a woman’s experience of religion or spirituality is significantly exploited by the furtherance of an individual’s reign of fear?

Spiritual abuse differs from the infliction of domestic abuse, though it is just as violative, and can be experienced in tandem. When utilising a website or other resource to seek help in the case of domestic violence, details of the various definitions of domestic abuse, means of escape, and legal routes are outlined. When consulting one of the fewer existing resources that define and provide advice to those subjected to spiritual abuse, only definitions and means of prudent escape are outlined – no specific legal respite seems to be outlined. This indicates both the complexity of the existing legal avenues – which seem to assume the bringing of legal action against an institution as opposed to an individual – and the clumping of spiritual abuse under the umbrella of domestic abuse, when in actuality this often comprises only part of the experience of indoctrination and manipulation.

What of the women who seek to continue as members of a certain religion, sect, or way of life, but who want to bring action against one or more individuals who have ruined that experience for them? It seems fitting that the option to bring a specific claim against one or more citizens for the exploitation of something as intimate as one’s religious or spiritual journey should be codified, universalised, and encouraged.

SOLUTIONS

Overall, the acknowledgement of the experience of spiritual abuse for individuals of every faith, race, gender, age, and location spanning the globe, and understanding that it is not confined to one religious practice, is key.

On a practical level, the recognition of this devastating reality operates as further ammunition for the cause of education for little girls and adult women alike. Once more the potential for the empowerment of girls and women, specifically through literacy, is evinced. In the context of religion, literacy makes it so that faith and logic need not be mutually exclusive.

Cutting off women’s ability to seek knowledge (and in turn, endorsement of self-trust) means that the abuses perpetrated largely by men – or those influenced by toxic masculinity - are internalised into shame, as opposed to being questioned as abusive practices. Combating the spiritual abuse of women does not concern the myth of superiority or alleged sameness of one gender over the other. Rather, it centres upon the ability to pursue concepts as integral as the right to question or access faith and religion on equal footing without man-made obstacles, indoctrination, or manipulation.  

Yumna is an aspiring barrister. Her fields of interest are immigration and refugee law, and international human rights.

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