While forced marriage and 'honour-based' violence attract media attention, little is known about the issues and experiences of South Asian women and children who are affected by gendered violence.This book explores the key theoretical and empirical issues involved in gendered violence, ethnicity and South Asian communities. The editors draw together leading researchers and practitioners to provide a critical reflection of contemporary debates and consider how these reflections can inform policy, research and practice. The contributors consider the primacy of religion and culture, and how South Asian women face multiple and intersecting forms of violence. Future directions for facilitating improved services for survivors of violence against women from different racial and ethnic backgrounds are also proposed.Violence Against Women in South Asian Communities will have widespread relevance for professional academics, researchers, students, policy makers, practitioners and anyone concerned with gendered violence within South Asian communities.
Introduction. Ravi K Thiara, University of Warwick and Aisha K Gill, Roehampton University.; Chapter 1. Understanding Violence against South Asian Women: What it means for practice. Ravi K Thiara and Aisha K Gill.; Chapter 2. Charting South Asian Women's Struggles against Gender-based Violence. Amrit Wilson, University of Huddersfield and Royal Holloway College.; Chapter 3. Masculinities and Violence against Women in South Asian Communities: Transnational Perspectives. Marzia Balzani, Roehampton University.; Chapter 4. Shrinking Secular Spaces: Asian Women at the Intersect of Race, Religion and Gender. Pragna Patel and Hannana Siddiqui, Southall Black Sisters.; Chapter 5. Moving Toward a 'Multiculturalism Without Culture': Constructing a Victim-Friendly Human Rights Approach to Forced Marriage In The UK. Aisha K Gill and Trishima Mitra-Kahn, Roehampton University.; Chapter 6. Continuing Control: Child Contact and Post-Separation Violence. Ravi K Thiara.; Chapter 7. Shariah Councils and the Resolution of Matrimonial Disputes: Gender and Justice in the 'Shadow' of the Law. Samia Bano, University of Reading.; Chapter 8. Protection for All? The Failures of the Domestic Violence Rule for (Im)migrant Women. Kaveri Sharma, London Metropolitan University and Aisha K Gill.; Chapter 9. Conclusions. List of Contributors. Index.
A wide-ranging, timely and empirically informed analysis of the different forms of violence and human rights violations faced by women at the intersection of gender, ethnicity and class, and the shortcomings of existing legal and policy frameworks for dealing with them. It engages with important conceptual and political debates in the area and develops a sophisticated theoretical and political framework for addressing violence against women within multiculturalists policy and practice. In so doing, it problematises existing assumptions about the role of culture, and provides a much more nuanced intersectionality framework for dealing with this important issue in modern society. It will fill an important gap in the literature and should be widely read.
