Shelter for Muslim women fleeing violence opens

Windsor this week became the third city in Canada to open a shelter for Muslim women fleeing domestic violence or poverty.

Called a Nisa Home — drawing from the Arabic word for woman — the renovated, four-bedroom house centrally located in the city is officially open. No one is calling it home yet, but staff have already received word about a possible referral from another local agency, said project manager Mahwish Ayub.

Funding for the Windsor home and two others in Mississauga and Surrey, B.C., comes from the National Zakat Foundation. The foundation collects alms donated under Islamic practice for charitable purposes.

Ayub said the plan originally was to open Windsor’s Nisa Home in August. But organizers raised enough money to buy a home rather than rent one. Real estate closing dates and necessary renovations pushed plans back, Ayub said.

“We had to customize it to our needs and to make it prettier,” she said. “We wanted it to be perfect.”

The location is not being disclosed to protect the women and children who will eventually stay there.

While the home will cater to Muslim women, it will be open to women of all ethnicities and backgrounds.

Windsor’s largest women’s shelter, Hiatus House, reports that

We had to customize it to our needs and to make it prettier. We wanted it to be perfect.

Muslim women make up about 10 per cent of its clientele — about 30 to 40 women each year.

The Nisa Home offers services in multiple languages, including English, Arabic, Urdu and Punjabi, with on-call help in Somali, Farsi, Dari, French, Kurdish and Turkish.

Staff are stationed on-site during daytime hours, offering counselling and referrals to other services.

For more information, go to nisahomes.com.