Sherona Rawat
South Africa

“I have never seen a person who is causing pain in the world who is not causing pain to themselves as well.”

I have been in school almost my entire life, but the most important things I have learned are not in textbooks. As a community psychologist with a strongly holistic orientation, I draw on all my experience. I work from the inside out.

I define myself first as a caring, humanitarian individual who loves to have peace and harmony around me. I value justice, and I think people deserve freedom. We are all answerable to God and none of us can judge the other, but we also can’t infringe on others as we exercise our own rights. I have never seen a person who is causing pain in the world who is not causing pain to themselves as well. The same goes for doing good. My slogan is: Love Who You Are.

I am an Indian South African Muslim―with a Hebrew name. We are Sunnis, ethnically Indian rather than Arab. The South African Muslim community is very strong. I grew up surrounded by people of like minds. My Dad’s generation saw apartheid, but we did not. Separation was enforced for them. For my generation it was chosen, and I see positive value in it at the same time as I recognize how it scarred them. There was no prejudice inside our dense, protective community. Having such a strong cultural identity prepared me to mingle with other people from a position of strength, without losing my identity.

I married at 18 ½ by my own choice. My first daughter was born when I was 19 ½. My husband accidentally became addicted to prescription pain medications, and we were separated. So I was traveling a lot, caring for the children (three, eventually, now 20, 17, and 13) and going to school and continuing to care for him, though that was less intense after we separated. Past my undergraduate, I did a master’s in clinical psychology plus all the courses for a master’s in women’s studies, including social anthropology. The clinical psych program included a year of compulsory government service in hospitals. Now I am finishing a Ph.D. in community psychology, with all the coursework completed.

Here in South Africa it’s not easy to get into master’s programs and honors programs. All the universities are government owned; there are no private ones, so you have to make the cut and be selected into them. It’s not easy to get into the media either. The community is very conservative; you have to be invited in. I’ve been blessed. I write for magazines like Fairlady, and I do a popular radio show with open phone lines. It’s an opportunity to transmit knowledge to the community, often on topics that are taboo in general conversation.

Aside from my media work I have a fairly new private practice, about three years old, and I still work in the hospitals. I conduct a support group for divorced Muslim women, who are often lonely and isolated and suffer from prejudice, to help them build up their identity. I do a separate group for their children―they feel the social isolation too―and they love it! I do these things free of charge, and their progress is my reward.

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You can converse with Sherona inside the Peace X Peace Community here.