Dr Nada Ibrahim

Nada Ibrahim is a Senior Research Fellow with the Centre for Islamic Thought and Education (CITE).

Her background is cross-disciplinary including psychology (with an Islamic Psychology intersect), Islamic studies, education, and criminology. Her expertise is in building healthy family relationships including intimate partner violence (IPV) in Muslim communities, domestic and family violence (DFV) in culturally and linguistically diverse communities and has been involved in many cross-cultural training activities with service providers on IPV, DFV and Muslim related issues.

Nada's expertise has driven her work at the grass-root level to set up culturally and religiously appropriate services for survivors/victims of family violence, perpetrators, families afflicted with domestic violence and children that grow up in those homes. Her focus is on a preventative and recovery approach.

As a Community Advocate, Nada has set up a number of programs to facilitate healthy family relationships within the Muslim community that utilises the Muslim worldview and underpinned with a strength-based approach. In June 2016, the pilot of the inspiredNAFSi personal leadership program was concluded and has since had 5 facilitators emerge for a future train-the-trainer approach to the program. The inspiredNAFSi model has been offered four times and is gaining traction for its practical and strength-based approach. The model was used in the Domestic Violence Prevention Month 2017 workshops funded by the Queensland Government with the theme of inspiredNAFSi takes on Gender Inequality (in collaboration with Kuraby Mosque) and We can Stop DV (in collaboration with Islamic Women's Association of Queensland). The Muslim Leaders Empowerment Program (for domestic violence) funded by Queensland Government was piloted in February 2018 with great success and more information can be found here. This program has also been delivered successfully in collaboration with the Board of Imams Victoria (BOIV) tailored to the Melbourne context in April 2019 and more information can be found here. She will continue to roll out some new programs that empowers the Muslim community towards healthy family relationships that are evidence-based through community/industry collaborations.

Prior to joining CITE, Nada was working for the Centre of Domestic and Family Violence Research at CQUniversity, Queensland. She worked on the ANROWS commissioned project on Domestic and family violence protection orders in Australia (DVPO): An investigation of information sharing and enforcement that entailed surveying police, magistrates, lawyers and victim advocates about their views on enforcement of DVPOs. The project also involved interviews with domestic and family violence victims and their cross-border experiences of DVPOs. The state of knowledge paper for the project as well as the findings for this research are now available including a research to practice paper.

Under the Canadian Observatory for Justice Responses to Domestic Violence (along with the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance, Griffith University) Nada undertook Post-Doc research into Muslim victims/survivors past experiences with the Criminal Justice System (CJS) where she interviewed IPV survivors to identify why they report (and do not) report incidents of DFV and the barriers they encounter in accessing the CJS. She has also done research that has documented IPV prevalence in the Queensland Muslim community and looked at risk factors that contribute towards IPV perpetration and victimisation and skewed IPV attitudes/beliefs. Publications of findings are currently underway.

Nada has been actively involved with various stakeholders via cross-cultural training to create awareness of IPV/DFV issues related to Muslims and how to address them and is currently involved in equipping faith-based leaders on appropriate skills and knowledge on IPV/DFV related issues to make them more accessible to Muslim victims of DFV.

Nada possesses both quantiative and qualitative research expertise. Her experience in research has given her the confidence to apply her skills to any new research projects that she has been engaged in. She enjoys teaching and engaging students in their learning journey utilising technology and innovative techniques to enhance the student experience.

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy Griffith University

• Master of Education (Guidance and Counseling) International Islamic University Malaysia

• Bachelor of Human Sciences (Psychology) International Islamic University Malaysia

Work history

2016 - current: Senior Research Fellow at Centre for Islamic Thought & Education, Unviersity of South Australia

2014 - 2016: Senior Research Officer at Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research, CQUniversity Brisbane campus

2013 - 2014: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Griffith University under the Canadian Observatory for Justice Responses to Domestic Violence at Mt Gravatt campus

2013: Sessional Lecturer with School of Humanities and School of Criminology at Griffith University Nathan and Gold Coast campuses

2012 - 2013: Associate Lecturer with School of Criminology at Griffith University

2011: Casual Lecturer, International Islamic University Malaysia

2010: Endeavour Research Fellowship Award (6 months)

2005 - 2006: Locum Manager & Aged Care Services Coordinator, Islamic Women's Association of Queensland Inc.