Kathleen Taylor is helping to demystify the stigma of domestic violence

Kathleen A. Taylor is the founder and co-chair of Healthy Families Initiative, a newly formed grassroots movement within the Rhode Island Muslim community to offer intervention and prevention services to Muslims who may be experiencing domestic violence within their homes.

Although in it’s infancy, the initiative has been gaining tremendous momentum as a resource hub for services available to those experiencing domestic violence in the Muslim community.

“I knew creating such an initiative would not be easy: it would mean forging a new path through a typically patriarchal society, and speaking about a subject that many within the community considered taboo - the relationship between a husband and wife. My efforts would either be accepted or rejected, and I ran the risk of being shunned from the community. But these were risks I was willing to take,” she says.

Taylor says she has never been fearful of walking to the beat of her own heart, listening to her intuition and of taking a leap of faith. 

“Ms. Taylor is a remarkable woman. As a survivor of domestic violence, she has first hand knowledge of the traumatic experiences battered women face. As a psychiatrist, I have witnessed these women bear the psychological scars of trauma for the rest of their lives; often leaving them incapacitated. Instead of just giving up or falling into the routine of learned helplessness, Ms. Taylor decided to not only stand up against violence but also become a voice for women who do not have a voice of their own,” Kazi M. Salahuddin, child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist at The Providence Center and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the Brown University School of Medicine says.

“Often times, we need to trust our divine guidance blindly and whole heartedly in order to see and feel positive results. If you can achieve this, then the lives you touch may be influenced in profound ways,” Taylor says.

Kathleen Taylor and her 6-year-old daughter, Sakeena Khan at the Islamic Center of Rhode Island, Masjid al-Kareem. “I am a strong woman . . . I deserve to be treated with respect, honor and dignity . . . my daughter can now grow up in an abusive-free home.” - excerpt from TayIor’s dedication to all survivors of domestic violence.

Taylor’s poem, I Am a Strong Woman, is online at www.ricma.org.