Domestic and sexual abuse of silenced Sikh women revealed – The Observer

By Alia Waheed | The Observer | Britain |

“Toxic cultural practices” and a lack of culturally sensitive services means many women who are victims of domestic and sexual abuse in the Sikh community are suffering in silence, according to the first comprehensive report into the issue.

The report by Sikh Women’s Aid (SWA), the UK’s only frontline service for Sikh women, will be released later this week to coincide with the launch of the United Nations’ women’s annual 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. It creates a harrowing picture of the prevalence and effect of domestic abuse and child sexual abuse in the Sikh community.

The research was carried out over a four-month period over the summer, during which time SWA distributed anonymous surveys within the community across the UK.

Researchers received replies from almost 700 respondents, and, of those, 70% said they had experienced domestic abuse, nearly half had experienced incidents with more than one perpetrator, including female members of their family. Over a third of respondents said that they had experienced child sexual abuse, and of these incidents, one in seven involved more than one perpetrator. Most victims knew their abuser, and nearly half of the incidents of abuse took place at home.

Gender equality is one of the core beliefs of the Sikh faith, but, says the SWA, patriarchal societal practices stemming from cultural traditions, such as concepts of honour, mean that many survivors are afraid to speak out.

Awareness of these issues is growing, however, following several high-profile cases, including the murder of 43-year-old Ranjit Gill from Milton Keynes earlier this year. She was stabbed 18 times by her “dominating and bullying” husband Anil Gill in an alcohol and cocaine-fuelled attack.

While domestic and sexual abuse affect all ethnicities, cultures and backgrounds, the founders of Sikh Women’s Aid and authors of the report, Sahdaish Pall and Sukhvinder Kaur, said that a lack of specialist support that met the needs of women in the Sikh community was creating “a generation of young women who are completely lost”.

Ranjit Gill, who was murdered by her husband Anil Gill. Photograph: Thames Valley Police

The findings of the report will be used by SWA to create services tailored to the specific needs and cultural nuances that victims of abuse within the Sikh Panjabi community face.

“Out of all the South Asian communities, Sikh women are the least likely to come forward about abuse. We come across as a very affluent, educated and giving community, and that reputation makes it very difficult for Sikh women to come forward,” said Pall.

“There are issues specific to our culture, like the link between alcohol and domestic and sexual violence. We have a huge drinking culture among men, and the amounts people consume exacerbate issues.”

“There is also a lack of education around things like coercive control. The parental generation’s view is if you haven’t been beaten up, that’s not abuse. There’s often an intergenerational and toxic normalisation and acceptance of violence against women.”

Read the full story, ‘Domestic and sexual abuse of silenced Sikh women revealed’ (The Observer, 20 Nov 2021), here.

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