Sarah Everard's death has prompted questions on women safety. While the government has announced project vigilante, it is imperative to think about the safety of ethnic minority women who are wary of reporting domestic violence, honour killings and sexual abuse.
Asian Voice reached out to Apsana Begum, Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse and Chair APPG Domestic Abuse to share her perspective on this matter.
She said, “In any conversations that affect minority or marginalised groups, it’s essential to be intersectional. It’s important to recognise that the threats to women from ethnic minority groups are different to those of white women. Honour-based violence appears in all walks of life, and we have to fight against the dangerous cliché that it exists only in ethnic minority communities or the Muslim community alone or in some communities more than others. Patriarchy may impact all women, but it is usually women with intersectional identities that suffer these worst. This does not mean that women with any privileges should not be supported but that it is important to recognise that women, for example trans women, suffer more abuse and violence than cis women.”
Police Crime Bill
Speaking about why she is resisting the Police Crime Bill, Apsana told Asian Voice, “I believe that the Police Crime Bill is an assault on our civil liberties and human rights. The right to protest is key to a functioning democracy, as without it many would not have their voices heard. For those marginalised groups who increasingly feel mainstream politicians to be letting them down, protest is an incredibly powerful tool. It is a central tenet of a flourishing democracy. For this a government to have the power of shutting down protests at will is simple authoritarianism, and I will continue to stand against it in Parliament and on the streets.”
Shamima Begum case
Shamima Begum is asking for another chance. We asked Apsana Begum to comment on that. She told Asian Voice, “I believe that Shamima Begum should have the right to trial in the UK, the country that she grew up in for 15 years. At the core of this issue is that of citizenship, which by some seems to be seen as a privilege and not a right. Shamima Begum is a UK citizen and there appears to be evidence that she was groomed. She should be tried by our legal system.”
Hate crimes
Boris Johnson is under pressure to consider misogyny as a hate crime. Applauding the work of campaigns and her colleague Stella Creasy MP, she said, “The challenge is now to ensure that this is implemented in practice by authorities when crime is reported. However, I also believe that we must recognise that issues of misogyny and male violence will not be resolved by bolstering the prison system, which has been evidenced to reproduce the harmful impact of misogyny, including serial offenders. There needs to be a public health approach to male violence, and the protection of women and girls, which places restorative justice at its centre, to reach a permanent end to this.”
Ethnic minorities
As the MP for a constituency that has a significantly large Bangladeshi population, Apsana said that she has seen how this community has been severely underinvested in and under-protected on the one hand, and heavily policed and excessively surveilled on the other. “I have been calling upon the government for greater protection for ethnic minority communities during the pandemic to stop such high numbers of deaths from continuing,” she said.
Women’s safety
Since the murder of Sarah Everard there have been renewed calls for men to be accountable for their actions and their violence. “I think men need to recognise the privileges they enjoy as men in society including the access and opportunities afforded to them, that women must work at least twice as hard to even be in reach of. Even the basic right to be able to walk in the street without facing harassment or violence. It is not enough to recognise it, men must ensure that they are not contributing to these trends actively or passively, making the home, the streets, workplaces, and faith spaces inaccessible to women. Not enough men really commit to standing to a side (sometimes quite literally) to make room for women. It’s time that this happened,” Apsana told Asian Voice.
Message for Ramadan
Muslims believe that Ramadan holds within it the power to change one’s own destiny. As we begin to emerge out of the pandemic, with our gains and losses, I wish Asian Voice readers the blessings that this month brings, including another chance at life and all new beginnings.
