Written evidence from Freedom Charity [HBA0008]

Background

1. Freedom Charity was founded in 2009 by Aneeta Prem, East London Magistrate, Campaigner and former Member of the Metropolitan Police Authority where she was Lead Member for the issues of Forced Marriage and Dishonour Abuse.  From the outset Freedom has worked closely with government to acknowledge the crimes inherent in Dishonour Abuse such as Coercive and Controlling Behaviour, Violence and Abuse, Forced Marriage, Virginity Testing, Hymenoplasty, Female Genital Mutilation and Breast Ironing. We focus on prevention by providing educational programmes for young men and young women in schools and other settings; we also run rescue services for victims/survivors. Our focus is on a multidisciplinary approach working across schools, statutory and non-statutory services and in communities. One of the most important elements of our work is training key workers and frontline staff to recognise signs of abuse and signpost victims and those who are vulnerable to get the support that they need.

2. We are very pleased that this inquiry is taking place and happy to contribute in any way.

Terminology

3. We recognise this inquiry refers to honour-based abuse. We want to be clear that we use the term Dishonour Abuse for three key reaons: first, there is nothing honourable about this type of behaviour towards an individual – indeed it dishonours the abused individual; second, the notion of personal, family, community or religious group “honour” as an excuse or reason or explanation for any kind of abuse is totally erroneous, against shared values and, in most cases, against current law; third, any person, family, community, religious group or nation, perpetrating such acts/behaviour is not worthy of honour.

4. We do recognise an umbrella term is needed for the abuse we are discussing. Freedom Charity has taken the lead by introducing and consistently using the category term “Dishonour Abuse” as an umbrella to cover such issues.  This is the term used in Freedom’s literature and in its education programmes in schools - seeking to change this endemic adverse mindset within a generation. We hope that the Committee will consider using this terminology in its final report.

Response to the Committee’s questions

What forms of violence against women and girls are motivated by so-called honour?

5. We would include forced and early marriage, breast ironing, Virginity Testing, hymenoplasty, coercion, stalking, control, violence and abuse. We believe that all of these crimes link to women and girls not having the same rights in terms of education, employment, income, status as men in communities. While the manifestations may be different, the root causes are the same. We believed that it is these root causes which must be challenged.

Are these different forms understood by the Government, police and other agencies?

6. We believe there is a lot of room for improvement. Our focus is always on the police, social services, frontline health professionals, border officers, teachers and so on, but we would recommend that the focus is also on any institutions in a community – including hairdressers or staff in local restaurants – who may witness controlling behaviour or speak to victims. We are not suggesting such groups can be trained in the same way as frontline professionals, but simply to recognise that solutions often come from within communities, which is why we have trained waiting staff and hairdressers in the past.

How prevalent is honour-based abuse? What do we know about the background or characteristics of victims and perpetrators?

7. We would recommend that the Committee bears in mind that many perpetrators that Freedom sees are young men born and brought up in the UK. They often feel emasculated and don’t feel like they have value or standing in their community – and this leads them to control women to improve their standing. The fact that we are often talking about young people in their twenties shows that we have work in education early – that is our opportunity to change minds. Ultimately, we need to get to a position where a boy’s life is not valued more than a girl’s life – this will take time but education is the starting point.

8. We would also recommend that the Committee avoids any stereotypes in relation to class and dishonour abuse. We are aware of many middle-class adults in professions such as health and education who have put coercive pressure on children to marry a chosen individual rather than their child’s personal choice.

9. We would also note that many perpetrators can be repeat offenders, making work in Prisons and Young Offenders Institutes absolutely vital.

What is known about abuse practised under the pretext of upholding cultural norms? Is there available data and/or research on the prevalence of these practices?

10. We are aware that the committee has heard from researchers on these issues. We would simply note that during Covid, even during international travel restrictions, we were still hearing about large numbers of girls being subject to female genital mutilation; rather than being taken abroad to be cut, or cutters coming to the UK, now the cutters were “home-grown”.

What are the challenges or barriers faced by victims of honour-based abuse in seeking support or protection?

11. Fear, money, isolation, lack of support and the bounty on their heads are huge challenges faced by victims, or those seeking to escape being victimised. They also have to deal with a lack of specialist services – victims are worried they will end up in generic services dealing with drug and alcohol addiction which doesn’t sit well with people who are themselves often very traditional. For this reason, we need services (rescue services and shelters) which are specifically geared for those trying to escape dishonour abuse. They need sanctuaries where they are taught life skills – how to cope on their own as they move from a very constrictive environment where they have no choice or agency to living entirely independently. Without such support, many victims end up going back home because they are so lonely and isolated.

12. Specialist counselling services are particularly key: the sense of shame about abandoning one’s whole community can be overpowering – we need specialist support to help people get themselves past that shame. Many victims face overwhelming manipulation and emotional blackmail with parents threatening to kill themselves if they do not marry a chosen partner, or threats that younger siblings will be forced to marry that partner if they don’t do so. Unique support is needed in such circumstances. 

How would you assess the police response to honour-based abuse? How could it be improved?

13. We believe that the police do need to improve on this area because of a lack of training and knowledge. Sometimes they want to mediate between the families even though we know that mediation is an inappropriate response to coercion. Police officers have been known to disclose confidential information – referring to a boyfriend unknown to a family for example – and may often seek to put an officer from the same community in charge of a case of dishonour abuse in that community. While that is understandable, there is a risk that officers from that community may be sympathetic to controlling families and what we really need are well-trained, independently-minded police officers from all backgrounds who do not try to mediate and work on the basis that any engagement they have with a victim of dishonour abuse could be the last chance to help them and therefore act immediately.

14. With that in mind, we would recommend that the Forced Marriage Unit should operate an out of hours number to provide advice to the police and other services. For this reason, Freedom operates a helpline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Is the current law in relation to honour-based abuse adequate to protect victims? If not, what should change?

15. We believe that with recent changes to legislation relating to child marriage and virginity testing, the law is adequate at present (although we will continue to press for the criminalisation of hymenoplasty). The big challenge is enforcement: statutory services don’t know the law and don’t know how to enforce it. Our focus would be on education, training and implementation – not on new legislation.

What are the challenges for services supporting victims of honour-based abuse? How could those challenges be mitigated or overcome?

16. Funding is a huge issue: dishonour abuse is seen as a ‘poor relation’ and it is very much a hidden crime. We need to ensure it is prioritised by the police, courts, CPS and so on, and we need much more education in schools. We should also see the links between forced marriage and radicalisation, and resource organisations like Freedom appropriately to undertake this painstaking work.

December 2022