On 17 September, 28-year-old primary school teacher Sabina Nessa was supposed to make her way to The Depot bar in Kidbrooke Village but never arrived. She was found dead in Cator Park in Kidbrooke, a few minutes’ walk from her home, on Saturday 18 September. In a Twitter handle called @countindeadwomen, one can find more such names of women who never returned safely, or some weren’t safe at home. As the community stands in solidarity with Sabina and her bereaved family, Asian Voice spoke to Met Police Assistant Commissioner, Mayor Sadiq Khan and women members of the parliament to find possible solutions to keep our women and girls safe.
In an exclusive interview with Asian Voice last Saturday, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, Louisa Rolfe told us that the alleged murder of Sabina Nessa (28) was in the “very early days of the investigation” and that Met Police were still working out all of the circumstances of what she termed as a “really awful and tragic case”.
By Monday evening, Met Police announced that 36-year-old Koci Selamaj had been charged with the murder of Sabina Nessa, who was killed as she walked to meet a friend in southeast London. He was arrested in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on Sunday. Mr Selamaj, of Terminus Road in the town, will appear at Willesden Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, the Metropolitan Police added.
The Assistant Commissioner also told the newsweekly that it was too early to say what's the motive of the murder might have been or why it happened. “However, each case causes huge fear in the community and real concern for women, but also all members. We are working to ensure that people feel safe, and we are working with the community to understand what they see,” Rolfe told Asian Voice.
When asked what the Met police observed in terms of crime rates in London, and in the UK, she explained, “I'm the National Police Lead for Violence and Public Protection, and also domestic abuse. We've been working with a number of academics to actually look at the impacts of lockdown in the pandemic, on things like domestic abuse, and in particular domestic homicide.
“Domestic homicide hasn't increased during the lockdown. But still, there are women who are nearly dying at the hands of a partner or another family member. And that is far too much. The murder rate is obviously closely monitored nationally. Thankfully, murders are still very, very rare. And to understand whether there's a trend of something increasing or decreasing, you need to look at a longer period, normally a five-year period to be confident you've got a statistically significant sample, but in terms of violence against women and girls, we work with a lot of charities who provide help and support to victims and survivors of abuse,” the Assistant Commissioner of Met Police said.
Levels of abuse have not gone up dramatically
She further added, “And what they've been telling us is that some of them have felt that perpetrators of abuse or circumstances have looked down to perpetuate more abuse. What our data is telling us is that levels of abuse have not gone up dramatically. What we have seen is that when lockdown restrictions ease, there are some increased tensions, and we've seen some more abuse. What we did find is that abuse from ex-partners or partners actually reduced during the lockdown, because people had less opportunity to get in contact or go around or visit an ex-partner and harass them or abuse them.
“So, this work has been validated by academics as well. It's not just police data, what we did use. So, what we found is that other crimes, like robbery and burglary, reduced during the lockdown. So, all police forces used that additional time and capacity to really focus on violence against women and girls and offensive the violence and why does that have vulnerability.
“We increased our arrest rates; we ran some specific initiatives to arrest prolific and persistent offenders. But we also did a lot of work to reach out to victims that we felt might be particularly isolated during the pandemic.”
Is a woman's safety, a woman’s responsibility?
Sharing her thoughts on this question, AC Lousia Rolfe told Asian Voice, “No, I think it's society's responsibility. I think every woman and girl should feel safe to go about their business and not fear abuse. But sadly, this is something we see and it's not a new problem. I think we've become increasingly aware of it. Modern media enables people to understand and hear more about what's happening. Thankfully, we're becoming less tolerant of it.
“But there's more noise about what's going on. I think if this is a problem that can't be fixed by policing alone. We can't just arrest our way out of it. We absolutely have a job to do to arrest defenders to protect victims as a secure justice for victims. But you know that that only provides part of the solution. We've got to address this with a proper joined-up public health approach, education, social care health. The government has got to be involved in making us less tolerant of this abuse at every level and working together effectively to ensure that the justice system is trauma-informed that we provide the right support to victims. But fundamentally, we prevent this from happening at all.”
Is there enough data around Asians and the BAME community?
Ms Rolfe said that the police have some challenges around collecting data effectively and explained that the recent inspection report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate Constabulary identified that we're not connecting enough information about protected characteristics.
“Lots of forces now are looking at how they collect that information to build a bigger picture. But a couple of things that come out of our research, which I think are important for us. One thing is, we do more detailed research on domestic homicide within the cases of women of black and minority ethnic heritage, who have been sadly and tragically killed by a partner.
“There is often less than reporting to the police, which we're accepting as they're less confident to come forward and tell us about what's going on. So, we've got to address that. And we're working with several charities and certainly in my national group of stakeholders, where charity comes along and working with specific charities, who support black and minority women to really understand and get beneath the barriers to reporting and telling police going on so that we can effectively support them.
“I think, also, that there's a real challenge to the government and to other agencies here to make sure that there are sufficient support services that absolutely understand the specific needs, and fears and concerns of black and minority women.
“There's been some brilliant academic research looking at this nationally, that suggests that some women from minority communities are fearful of how the police will deal with the perpetrator. And we know that many victims of abuse, if they're in an abusive relationship, while they want the abuse to stop and they want to be protected, they have real reservations about pursuing a justice outcome.
“So, lots of work for us to do in terms of prevalence,” Louisa said.
She added that the Office of National Statistics does look at the breakdown of ethnicity around victims and they do identify more prevalence in what they describe as hard-pressed communities. “So, where you have multiple vulnerabilities that's deprivation, or unemployment, that can have an impact on the prevalence of abuse and, and the lack of support services and intervention available for victims as well,” Louisa further added.
Please don't be passive bystanders
Assistant Commissioner Rolfe ensured our readers by saying, “On the whole, the UK is a very safe place. The police are determined to work with victims and communities to ensure that our response to violence against women and girls is really robust. We have made huge progress, as the HMIC report said, but there's still a lot more to do about the consistency of our response and ensuring that every victim gets the right support in terms of Asian men and women.
“I would say, particularly men, please don't be passive bystanders to this, please think about how your behaviour might affect women. And I'm not suggesting men are all abusers, but just think about how women might be fearful. So, when you see women, be respectful, ensure that you think about how your presence might affect them, but also challenged the behaviour of other men. Because most men are horrified by this.
“And absolutely, this causes men to fear as well. They worry about their wives, girlfriends, moms, daughters, and we all want to work together to deal with domestic abuse and violence against women and girls. So, let's not tolerate this. Let's work together. Let's challenge all the agencies involved because it's there aren't simple solutions here. And the first step to addressing this is a society just doesn't tolerate it.”
Every parent’s nightmare and every woman’s worst fear
In a statement shared with Asian Voice, the Mayor of London and a father of two daughters, Sadiq Khan, said, “I am devastated by the death of Sabina Nessa. Her family, friends and colleagues have shared powerful tributes to her life. It’s clear that she was a bright, kind and caring young woman, who had a hugely positive impact on those around her. My thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends and the whole community during this time of unimaginable grief.
“What happened to Sabina is every parent’s nightmare and every woman’s worst fear. Her death is a tragedy and I stand with the community in Kidbrooke and with Londoners across our city, united in grief, and united in our determination that justice is done.
“Women and girls in London deserve to feel safe at all times, in every part of our city and as Mayor, I remain committed to making our city safer for them.”
Commenting on the safety of women, Barrister and Executive Director of Karma Nirvana, Natasha Rattu told the newsweekly, “Unacceptably, women and girls have been living with male violence for far too long. Violence against women and girls is not inevitable. We need to do much more to tackle the root causes if we truly want to prevent and end violence against women and girls. It is also critical that specialist services are prioritised and sustained in order to respond to the different and specific needs of ALL women. It is only through doing this can we ensure that ALL victims received equal support and attention.”
A national emergency
LibDem Cllr Rabina Khan said, “When I attended Sabina Nessa’s vigil on Friday evening there was an outpouring of grief, a community in pain and a family in anguish. Sabina Nessa, a brilliant teacher, a young woman senselessly and violently murdered in a public space, yet here we are again only a few months after Sarah Everard’s death, another brilliant young woman whose life was cut short.
“If the UK Government wants to take violence against girls and women and what is now becoming a national emergency, then it needs to allocate funds and legislate further. For the Liberal Democrats, the challenge to the Government is to legislate to make misogyny a hate crime and much more to make sure that all girls and women are safe. Make sure that those occupying positions of trust are people we really can trust.
“So much of the talk is about women taking responsibility but where is the debate of education boys and young men? Men need to step up, they need to be active allies. Changing men's behaviour changes that debate.”
Misogyny should also be made a hate crime
Sharing her perspective with the newsweekly, Munira Wilson MP said: “Violence by men against women and girls is far too prevalent in our society. Our criminal justice system is failing women and too many women feel unsafe walking down their own streets. Our society is letting women down, with survivors not being taken seriously and criminals getting let off the hook. Everything has to change. We must all work together to make women feel safer. The Government must do more to prevent violence against women, as well as to support survivors. This is why the Government must ratify the Istanbul Convention and uphold internationally agreed standards for preventing violence against women and supporting survivors. Misogyny should also be made a hate crime, so it is treated as severely as crimes motivated by racial or religious hatred, to help stamp out the abuse women face. Women from BAME communities can be more vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. More has to be done by the police, our legal system and this Conservative Government to take victims seriously, especially BAME women”
4,800 women were turned away from a refuge due
Preet Kaur Gill, MP for Edgbaston in Birmingham told us, "Sabina's murder is tragically part of the pandemic of violence that we've seen against women. Last year, 2.3 million experienced domestic abuse. It is an issue that has continually come under the spotlight, yet, even after the outrage and anger voiced after the killing of Sarah Everard, the Government has failed to act. It isn't good enough just to talk about violence against women and the need for more support. Real action is needed.
"Cases continue to be reported, yet perpetrators are getting away with their crimes as cases are not going to court. It is communities and charities that are stepping up to support women. However, they too are so underfunded that they simply can't cope. Last year 4,800 women were turned away from a refuge due to lack of space. How many more women need to die before the Government will do something? It's not just a little more street lighting that's needed. We need proper violence against women strategy backed up by real cash. We need violence against women to be classified a ‘serious crime’ so that police forces locally spend more time and resources tracking down perpetrators and bringing them to justice."
