This document summarizes a workshop hosted by Sonke Gender Justice and the South African Council of Churches Youth Forum to discuss sexuality and faith among South African youth from different religious backgrounds. The workshop aimed to create a safe space for 16 young religious leaders to openly discuss issues like sexual pleasure, gender roles, and reproductive health in the context of their faiths. Through participatory activities, the youth were able to share personal experiences and explore how their faiths have shaped their understanding of sexuality. The workshop found that youth face barriers in religious communities to openly discussing sexuality, but engaging religious leaders on these issues could help empower youth and address problems like sexual violence and HIV/AIDS. The organizers aim to continue this dialogue and take the youth on

1. INTRODUCTION
Religion and faith play a big role in South Africa, with about 64% of
its population adhering to one faith or another according to figures
released by the Win-Gallup International “Religiosity and Atheism
Index” in 2012. It is through religion and faith that communities,
including young people, shape their values and attitudes towards sex
and sexuality. Young people, despite being Christians, Muslims or
African Traditional Religion all share a common challenge when it
comes to issues of sharing and exploring their sexuality. With social
and cultural institutions like religion, family influencing how young
people It is the same young believers who in the future will have
potential to hold leadership positions within their faiths.
In reality, young people do not have a safe space to sit down and talk
openly and freely about the challenges related to sexuality, gender
identity as well as Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights related
issues within a faith set-up. In most instances young people go to
religious youth camps that are mainly theologically-based with little
to no discussions about social issues that are affecting them.
Sonke Gender Justice (Sonke) a non-profit organisation that seeks to
promote gender equality, has grown to acknowledge the powerful role
that faith communities, especially religious and traditional leaders,
can play in the formation and entrenchment of social norms. The role
of these leaders has however been seen to either be a force for
positive social change or as a barrier to how communities respond
to social norms that include the achievement of gender equality and to
see an end of discrimination based on gender and sex differences. As
such, in partnership with the South African Council of Churches
(SACCYF) , Sonke realised a gap that faith communities were not
affording young people a chance to engage on social issues and hence
embarked on a groundbreaking youth campaign for youth to talk
about how religion is shaping their sexuality and sexual pleasure in
the context of faith.
OBJECTIVES
Sonke and SACCYF felt the need to engage young people from
different faiths on how religion informs their sexuality. Through
several consultations and brainstorming between SACCYF and Sonke
through the Social and Structural Drivers (SSD) and the Sexual
Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) portfolios, the teams felt the
need to:
1. To bring together a group of young people drawn from the
Muslim, Christian, African Traditional Religion as well as
Traditional leaders from across South Africa.
2. For young leaders and youth to speak about how their lived
realities and understanding of their sexuality, in light of how
sexual pleasure impacted their own faith.
3. To create a safe space for youth from various religions and faiths
to learn from each other, be it teachings or texts, that speak to and
about sexuality.
4. To uncover deep-seated beliefs that make it difficult for youth to
fully embrace and express their sexualities.
5. A need to expand discussions on sex from an HIV and AIDS
perspective to that of also looking at it from a sexual pleasure
angle.
6. To discuss sexual power in light of agency and consent
7. To have an open talk about prevention of sexuality, teenage
pregnancy, HIV and AIDS as well as Gender Based Violence.
RESULTS
The results of this process was a groundbreaking 3 days “Faith and
Sexual Pleasure” workshop that was hosted at the Intundla Game
Lodge in Pretoria, South Africa, from the 17th to the 19th of
November 2014. Some lessons learnt from this workshop included:
 A safe space for youth, despite the various faiths present, to engage
and express themselves freely to talk about their bodies, faiths, sex
and sexuality,
 Youth managed to speak freely, revealing some linkages to lives of
violence and oppression and how there experiences have shaped who
they are,
 How youth can engage with communities, both societal and faith,
on issues related to sex, sexuality and sexual pleasure,
 Various religious texts that celebrate sexuality.
 In June 2015, Sonke invited one of the participants, a young
Muslim leader who was part of this workshop, to share his
experiences on faith and sexuality to religious leaders, academics and
activists during a “Religion, Gender and Sexuality” workshop in
Johannesburg
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, faith communities, especially in Africa, have
untapped potential to support youth in how they relate to sex
and sexuality so as to empower them to prevent and respond to
sexual violence. This sector can also provide care and support,
by identifying and challenging harmful attitudes and beliefs
within society that perpetuate stigma towards talking about
sexuality. It is through such open and free youth gatherings that
youth will be able to fight against HIV and AIDS, gender
inequality as well as sexual violence. However, it is the same
faith communities at times that resist efforts to end
discrimination in areas of gender equality, HIV and AIDS,
sexual orientation, sexuality and Sexual Reproductive and
Health Rights (SRHR). This resistance has often been informed
by religious beliefs and practices that most communities,
including the youth, continue to hold onto.
REFERENCES
http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/14/file/14.pdf
http://www.genderjustice.org.za/publication/faith-and-sexual-
pleasure/
http://www.genderjustice.org.za/article/interrogating-religion-
to-address-gender-and-sexuality-discrimination/
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sociology/pdfs/rys-research-
report.pdf
CONTACT
email: mpho@genderjustice.org.za
Twitter: @MphokuhleM
Tel: +27 11 339 3589
By Mphokuhle Mabhena
RELIGION: A BARRIER OR ENABLER TO
YOUTH UNDERSTANDING THEIR SEXUALITY
“The role of religion in socialising youth and their sexuality”
METHODOLOGY
Since the main target group for this process was youth believers and
leaders from different faiths, Sonke and SACCYF felt the need to use
messaging and advertisements that ideally speak to today’s youth. In
an era where technology and social networks This process consisted
of 3 stages:
A poster was designed and was used to advertise the workshop.
Adverts were placed in the local newspaper “The Daily Sun” and
Sonke’ Gender Justice’s website to invite them to apply to be part of
this workshop,
 Applicants could apply via text messages, video clips, songs or
poetry via social media in a language of their choice,
Applicants were encouraged to submit personal essays exploring
why sexuality and sexual pleasure is important to them, in relation to
their faith.
SELECTION PROCESS:
Dozens of applications were received as submissions and from these
a selection of 16 participants, all under 30 years of age, from different
faiths (Christian, Muslim and African Traditional religion as well as
sexual orientations were chosen to take part in the 3 days workshop.
Among the participants some comprised of the following:
1. A member of the Ndebele Royal family from a conservative
traditional area in Limpopo,
2. A congregant of the powerful Zionist Christian Church (ZCC)
3. A Muslim woman who is a religious leader and teaches youth
about Islam,
4. A lesbian sangoma (traditional healer) couple,
5. An openly gay youth pastor,
6. And many other youth from the above mentioned faiths.
FACILITATION:
Mmatshilo Motsei, a spiritual life coach, author, development
facilitator and psychology graduate who has worked as a nursing
lecturer, public health researcher, trainer and consultant on gender,
gender violence and HIV facilitated the workshop process.
Mmatshilo used various methods to have the young faith leaders to
explore their lives and identities in light of their sexual and faith
values, attitudes and experiences through the following:
• The workshop used a participatory method where participants
were encouraged to share their personal lived experiences
• Formal presentations by participants
• Group work,
• Role plays,
• Artistic illustrations and sharing of stories
It is worth noting that this workshop was a new area of exploration
for Sonke and hence in order to allow the level of energy and trust
within the group a decision was made not to formulate a program for
the workshop. This proved to be a valuable learning and sharing
approach that allowed maximum participation and trust.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The intention, based on availability of funding, is to:
 Continue work with this group and use the next gathering as
a space to strengthen the groups understanding of SRHR,
including that of sexuality,
 To focus on what impact the personal sharing and learning
process can have on the youth faith leaders’ circle of influence/
congregations/ clients etc,
 the group to be taken on a learning tour within the region to
understand the role of SRHR within the historical context of
each faith group. Countries that were identified were Mali
(Islam), Ethiopia (Christianity) and Malawi (Traditional
Healing)