When Kiranjit Ahluwalia was jailed for life for setting fire to her husband Deepak in May 1989, a small band of dedicated activists picked up a baton that Kiranjit’s legal team had dropped.
Kiranjit had suffered a decade of abuse and unspeakable brutality at the hands of her husband and now faced a tariff of 12 years in jail while her young children were brought up by her abuser’s family.
The women of Southall Black Sisters first helped Kiranjit’s sister win custody of her two children.
.... Pragna cites cases of women and even a man being attacked in ethnic communities in the UK for not dressing as such new traditions dictate.
Another key battleground for Southall Black Sisters is schools.
Pragna says the group challenged a co-ed faith school segregating boys and girls “to disempower young Asian girls, narrow the curriculum they were taught and inculcate patriarchal norms.”
She has also been involved in challenging faith leaders who have organized protests against schools teaching equality for gays. [The London Economic] Read more
