Written evidence from Sikh Women’s Aid [HBA0022]

Sikh Women's Aid (SWA) was launched in 2021 and is a 'by-and-for' support service for Sikh Panjabi women and children in the UK who are experiencing domestic, sexual abuse and exploitation. SWA is based in the West Midlands, but demand for our services is nationwide.

The purpose of SWA is:

To relieve the needs of and protect and preserve good health among Sikh/Panjabi women and children, who have suffered from or are exposed to domestic abuse and sexual exploitation including but not limited to:

We operate

SWA consult with Sikh Panjabi women and girls each year concerning the prevalence and impact of all different forms of domestic and sexual violence within the community.

Honour based abuse

HBA is pervasive in the Sikh and South Asian community. The term HBA is something that is used by the western world to describe what they understand to be HBA. However, we know that HBA is not necessarily a term that is used or even understood by many Sikh households.

From carrying out a survey in 2022 we learnt that language that has been developed and used by the white Eurocentric communities, may not make sense to those from the Sikh and South Asian communities. This isn’t about whether they speak English or not, this is about whether they understand these terms. We know this because in the 2022 survey when we asked victims what forms of abuse they experienced, only 6% ticked HBA. But when later in the survey we asked victims about why they didn’t tell anyone about the abuse, 39% stated due to shame and guilt.  So language is an issue here.

During a recent visit to a faith based secondary school, 200 students aged between 13 and 15 were asked if they understood the term HBA, and not 1 young person put their hand up. The young people did not understand what HBA meant.

In the Sikh and South Asian community HBA can manifest as patriarchal violence, matriarch abuse, perpetrated mainly against women and girls but can also impact men and boys. It is motivated by enforcing “honour” codes, to punish and prevent behaviour perceived to be shameful, to send a message to the community and silence any potential challengers.

FSA research explored the themes of shame, subordination, and entrapment. They found that the 'concept of family shame (izzat) played a powerful role in Asian women's experience (shame_and_izzat.pdf (fsa.me.uk)). Their discourses offer rich insights into the nature of these processes and their complex inter-dependencies. The fear of bringing shame to others, called 'reflected shame' (Gilbert, 2002), was linked to socially defined rules and prescriptions for reputation gaining and maintaining via culturally transmitted systems of honour (izzat). To lose honour (by the actions of another) or to bring dishonour is to be externally shamed, lose status in the eyes of others, or even be disowned by the family and community. This theme pervaded the conversations far more than notions of personal shame, which was taken as failing in roles and loss of identity.' (Gilbert et al., 2004)

SWA believes that shame ('sharam') and so-called 'honour' (izzat) underline the absence of disclosure of abuse within the Sikh Panjabi community. The prevalence of shame and honour is seen predominately in extended and in-law family settings but can also be reinforced by some community members to keep survivors trapped in abusive relationships. 

Sadly, survivors' parents and extended family are sometimes more concerned about what other people in the community will think and how that could impact their daughter's marriage prospects; when a daughter wants to leave an abusive relationship, parents will often cite the negative impact on the marital prospects of any younger siblings. Hence shame and honour are given greater importance than the life and happiness of their daughter/sister. 

SWA believes that shame and so-called 'honour' and the absence of culturally appropriate safe spaces for discussion, keeps the community silent. It allows perpetrators of domestic and child sexual abuse to walk freely, with some holding positions of trust within the community and the wider civic society.

Over the last 18 months, SWA has supported several honour-based violence survivors:

HBA can also be used to further abuse victims or attempt to please the groom’s parents to stop them abusing the daughter in law.

For example:

“Honour” based abuse is pre-meditated and planned and often includes collective involvement of family and community members, which can include women and, in some cases, hired criminals. Perpetrators of the harmful practice often show no remorse and may demonstrate pride in their actions which they claim protect family “honour”.

This year SWA were keen to look at the role of Sikh Panjabi females as perpetrators of domestic (33% of perpetrators identified as female). Work is needed to understand why women feel able to subject other women to domestic abuse.

The subject of female perpetrators is a complex subject for the DV and VAWG sectors to comprehend and challenge. It runs counterintuitive to the commonly held euro-centric/white narrative of women as survivors and victims. Indeed, it could be that some of these women are coerced or find cultural norms pressurising them into such behaviour. It could also be learned behaviour due to the difference in the way they have been treated by their mothers/In-laws and the difference in the value of females compared with males in their family.

The importance of shame and honour within the community means that some 'honour killings' continue to be justified by family and community members associated with the perpetrators who are held in high regard in the community. The case of Surjit Atwal is one such example. Surjit Athwal was a married mother of two. She was 27 years old and originally from Coventry. She was killed in India in 1998. Her mother-in-law Bachan Athwal and Surjit's husband, Sukhdave Athwal, of Hayes, West London, were jailed at the Old Bailey in 2007 for arranging her murder. Surjit Athwal was killed during a trip to the northern Indian state of Punjab in 1998. Her body was never found. Reporting around the criminal trial of Surjit's perpetrators revealed that she was planning on leaving an abusive relationship with multiple perpetrators and that she had met someone else. 

Surjit Atwal was believed to have been the victim of an 'honour killing' because she allegedly had an affair, and many internal discussions in the community applauded the killing.

“Honour” based abuse cases can escalate very quickly. It is common for the level of risk to be underestimated by the victim/ survivor and the risk can continue throughout their lifetime.

It can take many forms of abuse including physical, emotional, and psychological abuse, “honour” killing, forced marriage, rape, forced suicide, acid attacks, mutilation, imprisonment, beatings, death threats, blackmail, shunning, disownment, and surveillance.

Police forces still have a lot to learn. Members of SWA have been invited to be part of a panel to review domestic abuse cases reported to the police that have been closed, recorded as non-crime or there was no further action. This review is about quality checking cases and learning from mistakes made. In a recent review of cases, a young South Asian woman was attacked by her brother while she was out at a party. Her brother called her ‘slag’ and through her to the ground and continued to strangle her. Other party goers had to pull him off and it was the sister/victim who called the police. She spoke to the police, but a statement wasn’t taken at the time. The following day the victim did not want to pursue the case and stated that she didn’t think she was in danger. This rang alarm bells for our staff and the police closed the case. It was identified in the panel meeting that this was not the right course of action and that potentially even the victim was underestimating the risk she may be in. For a man to strangle her in front of many other people without fear, points to a person that isn’t concerned about the consequences of his actions.

We know that women from the Sikh community are remaining in abusive relationships for longer periods than average. Data suggests that, on average, victims experience 50 incidents of abuse before getting effective help (SafeLives, 2015). The SWA statistics acknowledge the accumulative pressure of abuse within the Sikh Panjabi community and the hesitancy over divorce to save the family’s honour. Therefore, it is unsurprising that more than a fifth of respondents to our 2022 survey reported abuse lasting 6 to 10 years, and another fifth reported abuse lasting 11-20 years. A further 18% reported abuse lasting for more than 21 years.

Data shows that underreporting is even more acute within minority communities. Imkaan (2020) findings strongly suggest that BAME women were more likely to stay in abusive relationships due to the barriers associated with leaving. SafeLives’ (2020) dataset (with 42000 clients) showed that ‘BME clients suffered abuse for 1.5 times longer before seeking help compared to those from a white British or Irish background’. Research shows that a woman facing domestic violence has to make 11 contacts with agencies before getting the help she needs; however, this rises to 17 if she is BME’ (Brittain et al, 2005).

 

When asked about the types of abuse they experienced, ‘honour’-based abuse was selected by only 6 per cent of respondents. However, when looking at the reasons that prevented them from disclosing their abuse, shame and guilt was selected by 39 per cent of respondents, and so-called ‘honour’ featured heavily in the ‘other’ responses. 

SWA believes that terms like ‘honour-based abuse’ is the terminology used by professional agencies and not something Sikh Panjabi women and girls commonly could identify with. This would explain the discrepancy where respondents engaged with the question around the types of abuse, they had experienced; honour-based violence was reported at a much lower level (6 per cent) than the reasons that prevented victims from disclosing their abuse, shame, and guilt at 39 per cent. 

Domestic violence significantly impacts women's health and well-being in the immediate and longer term, often continuing even after the relationship has ended. The psychological consequences of violence can be as severe as the physical effects. Exposure to violence and abuse can lead to poorer mental and physical health. Seventy per cent of respondents reported experiencing depression and anxiety, and 47 per cent reported suffering from sleep disturbances.

Sikh Women’s Aid believes that HBA is very much underestimated. SWA believes that HBA exists as an underlying layer in many DA cases. A recent domestic homicide review revealed that the daughter of the murdered victim was dating a man outside of the community. The father/perpetrator was not happy about this relationship but the mother/victim didn’t have an issue with it. It’s very possible the mother/victim was blamed for the daughter dating a person not of the community because she didn’t condemn the relationship, but we will never know what the argument was about that day, before the fatal incident took place. It’s quite possible this was a serious issue within the family and as a man from the Sikh community, the perpetrator saw this relationship as dishonourable which led to the argument which led to the murder. The perpetrator took his own life in prison.

Child Sexual Abuse 

There has been no substantive research into sexual abuse in the Sikh Panjabi community in the UK. We hope our profiling in our 2022 survey will contributes to a broader debate within the community and policy and decision makers at all levels.

Almost a third of all respondents (32%) have experienced sexual abuse. 

 

When asked about who the perpetrators of the sexual abuse were: 

The levels of sexual abuse perpetrated against children in the Sikh Panjabi community are alarming. Perpetrators hide in plain sight due to an absence of disclosures and reporting. We must tackle the cultural norm that uses shame and places the family's honour before the needs of individual victims. When some victims do disclose, they can be shunned, not believed, or told to stay quiet for fear of embarrassment and the impact on the broader family and the family and perpetrators' reputation and position in the wider community. These warped community attitudes only seek to empower and embolden perpetrators, raising the question of how safe our community and home settings are when voices are silenced. It is no understatement to say that the Sikh Panjabi community is amidst an abuse crisis.

 

December 2022