Role
Dr Rahmanara Chowdhury is a Chartered Psychologist, and currently a Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychology. Her expertise is in working with ethnic minorities, exploring, understanding and addressing all forms of abuse. She draws on this body of work to devise, develop and deliver specialist culturally informed training, primarily to enable service providers to work more holistically with clients. Rahmanara has previously delivered training to organisations including the MET police, HMPPS, NHS, community practitioners and specialist domestic abuse services.
She teaches on undergraduate and postgraduate psychology courses, supervising projects for final year undergraduate and postgraduate students, including DPsyc and PhD candidates.
Career overview
Dr Rahmanara Chowdhury completed her PhD at Brunel University London, where she was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to examine domestic violence and abuse within UK Muslim communities. Alongside her doctoral studies, she held a Research Associate position at Nottingham Trent University, contributing to a range of forensic and forensic mental health research projects within secure settings. Her research experience includes involvement in service evaluation projects across both secure environments and third-sector organisations, focusing on areas such as service provision for vulnerable individuals in high-secure mental health settings and support for young people at risk of exploitation.
Prior to her current role, Rahmanara taught on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care, serving as Course Lead and preparing students for professional practice in the sector. She also established the Centre for the Study of Wellbeing, an initiative designed to bridge academic research and grassroots expertise, fostering collaborative approaches to wellbeing and community engagement.
Earlier in her career, Rahmanara worked in widening participation at Loughborough University before moving into practitioner roles supporting victims and survivors of domestic violence and abuse. In this capacity, she developed specialist recovery programmes for survivors and delivered training for professionals, promoting culturally informed, holistic approaches to supporting individuals affected by domestic abuse.
Research areas
Rahmanara’s research and professional interests span domestic violence and abuse, faith and culture, mental health and wellbeing, vulnerable populations, service evaluation, community-engaged research, decolonial approaches to forensic research, and holistic understandings of wellbeing. Her work is interdisciplinary in nature, bringing together insights from criminology, mental health, sociology, faith studies, and community-based practice to address complex social issues affecting marginalised and minoritised communities.
Her current research focuses on several interconnected areas:
- Domestic and spiritual abuse within faith and community contexts
Rahmanara's work explores the diverse forms that abuse can take within religious, community, and domestic settings, with a particular focus on Muslim communities. This includes examining spiritual abuse within domestic and institutional contexts, as well as understanding how religious and cultural dynamics shape experiences of abuse, help-seeking, and recovery. - Holistic approaches to reducing offending and reoffending
Rahmanara is interested in how criminal justice, health, and community services can work more effectively with individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system. Particular attention is given to the experiences of people from minoritised communities and the importance of recognising the social, cultural, and structural factors that influence pathways into and out of offending. - Community capacity building and collaborative research
Rahmanara works closely with grassroots and third-sector organisations to strengthen research capacity and support evidence-informed practice. Through these partnerships, she has contributed to the development of a number of influential and landmark reports, helping to translate community knowledge and lived experience into meaningful impact.
A key thread running throughout Rahmanara's work is a commitment to building bridges between communities that are often misunderstood, marginalised, or represented as 'other'. Through collaborative research, knowledge exchange, capacity development, and relationship building, she seeks to foster greater understanding, challenge misconceptions, and support more equitable and inclusive approaches to policy, practice, and service provision.
Publications
Chowdhury. R., (2026). The Impact of Structural Racism on Violence Against Women and Girls in Muslim communities. In Eds Zempi. I., Trickett. L., and Smith. J. Palgrave Handbook on Violence Against Women and Girls. Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-84546-8_26-1
Sweeney, F., Chowdhury, R., Shah, I., & Winder, B. (2026). “I Was Everything What I Never Wanted to Be”—Exploring Moral Injury Within Forensic Healthcare Settings. Social Sciences, 15(7), 429. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci15070429
Adam. M. and Chowdhury. R., (2026). Islamic Epistemology in conducting insider research on Spiritual Abuse in Muslim communities in the UK. Journal of the British Association for the Study of Religions 27, 18-48. https://doi.org/10.1558/jbasr.33218
Adam, M. & Chowdhury, R. (Eds) (2025). Spiritual Abuse in the Muslim Context: A Collection of Conference Papers in Reclaiming Sacred Knowledge and Resisting Harm through Collective Liberation. Sacred (Body:Space:Mind).
Chowdhury, R., Gilani, S., and Bashir, A. (2025). Faith-Centric Mental Health in Action, Capacity Building Report. Muslim Mind Collaborative. https://muslimmindcollaborative.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Capacity-Building-Report-MMC-1.pdf
Hanan. R., & Chowdhury. R. Dynamic resistance to spiritual abuse: Strategies and innovations in Muslim contexts. In (eds) Stiebert. J., (2025) Abuse in World Religions. Routledge.
Chowdhury. R., & Hannan. R., Developments in the field of understanding Spiritual Abuse within Muslim Contexts. In (eds) Stiebert. J., (2025) Abuse in World Religions. Routledge.
Chowdhury. R., (2025). Insider Research into Abuse in Muslim Communities. In (eds) Woodhead. L., Cadman. L., & Graham. N., Messy Methods in Researching Religion. Oxford University Press.
Adam, M., Chowdhury, R., Adnan-Shaukat, M. & Mulla, F. (2024) Sacred Trust, Silent Wounds: An Exploration of the Experiences and Understanding of Abuse in Scottish Muslim Communities. Sacred (Body:Mind:Space) https://www.sacredbms.org.uk
Mahoney, I., & Chowdhury, R. (Eds.). (2024). Holistic Responses to Reducing Reoffending. Taylor & Francis. https://www.routledge.com/Holistic-Responses-to-Reducing-Reoffending/Mahoney-Chowdhury/p/book/9781032378657
Mahoney. I., & Chowdhury. R., Situating Holistic Approaches to Reducing Reoffending. In (Eds) Mahoney. I., & Chowdhury. R., (2024) Holistic Responses to Reducing Reoffending. Routledge
Chowdhury. R., & Mahoney. I., Holistic approaches as an Approach to addressing Minority Needs in Reducing Reoffending. In (Eds) Mahoney. I., & Chowdhury. R., (2024) Holistic Responses to Reducing Reoffending. Routledge
Terrill, D.J., & Chowdhury. R., Muslim Males and Forensic Mental Health: Current Challenges and the Value of Cultural Competence. In (Eds) Mahoney. I., & Chowdhury. R., (2024) Holistic Responses to Reducing Reoffending. Routledge
Chowdhury. R., & Mahoney. I., Future Directions in Frameworks of Holistic Approaches in (Re)integration and (Re)settlement. In (Eds) Mahoney. I., & Chowdhury. R., (2023) Holistic Responses to Reducing Reoffending. Routledge
Idriss, M., & Chowdhury. R., Honour Based Stalking. In (Eds) (2023) Young People, Stalking Awareness and Domestic Abuse. In Partnership with the Alice Ruggles Trust https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-32379-9_8
Chowdhury, R., (2023). The Role of Religion in Domestic Violence and Abuse in UK Muslim Communities. Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, rwad008. https://doi.org/10.1093/ojlr/rwad008
Chowdhury, R. (2023). Understanding Domestic Violence and Abuse in UK Muslim Communities: A Multi-perspective Interpretative Phenomenological Approach. Conference proceedings of the Project dldl and EMIRTA Annual Conference ‘Domestic Violence – Gender – Faith: Promoting Integrated and Decolonial Approaches to Domestic Violence Cross-culturally. SOAS University London.
Chowdhury, R., (2022). Developing a Model of Islamic Psychology and Psychotherapy. Review article. The Muslim World Book Review. Vol 42/4.
Chowdhury, R., & Winder, B. (2022). A Web Model of Domestic Violence and Abuse in Muslim Communities—A Multi Perspective IPA Approach. Social Sciences, 11(8), 354. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/8/354#
The Lantern Initiative CIC, Civil Society Consulting CIC, Shaikh, A., Chowdhury, R., (2021). Muslim Mental Health Matters: ‘Understanding barriers to accessing mental health support services and gaps in provision for the UK Muslim community’. The Lantern Initiative, Peterborough, UK. https://www.thelanterninitiative.co.uk/research
Chowdhury, R., Winder, B., Blagden, N., Mulla, F., (2021). ‘I thought in order to get to God I had to win their approval’: a qualitative analysis of the experiences of Muslim victims abused by religious authority figures'. Journal of Sexual Aggression https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2021.1943023
Mahoney, I., & Chowdhury, R., (2021). Criminal Justice and Inequality: What can be done to reduce reoffending? Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham. Commissioned by the DAPE project (Developing Academic Policy and Engagement).
Chowdhury, R., (2021), Road to Recovery; Healing from Domestic Violence, London, UK, Ta-Ha Publishers
Terrill, D. J. and Chowdhury, R. (2020) Empowerment in action: A psychological wellbeing strategy for male Muslim former prisoners. Capacity-building document. Forensic Mental Health Conference. Brunel University, London.
Chowdhury, R. & Winder, B., (August 2018), Link to Change Evaluation Report, SOCAMRU, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, Commissioned by Link to Change
Chowdhury, R., (2016), Qawwamoon: Protectors and Maintainers, London, UK, Ta-Ha Publishers