‘Culture’ the Cuts and Violence Against Women and Girls

CULTURE, THE CUTS AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

Public meeting – all welcome

Tuesday 18^thJune 2013, 6 pm  

Room V211, (2^nd floor)

SOAS Vernon Square Campus (off Pentonville Road , not Russell Square)

http://www.soas.ac.uk/visitors/location/maps/

Speakers include:

Zlakha Ahmed, Director, Apna Haq, Rotherham

Carlene Firmin, Principal Policy Advisor, Office of the Children’s Commissioner,

Amrit Wilson, Freedom Without Fear Platform,

Speaker from LAWA

The  sexual abuse, grooming, and other forms of violence against women and girls which are being reported almost daily in the media are taking place against a background of relentless closure of the very services which women and girls facing violence could turn to. Refuges and services for Black and Minority women particularly, which were fought for and established over the last three and a half decades, are being closed down. They are being replaced with punitive policies which involve the prosecution not only of the perpetrators but of women who withdraw cases.

At the same time and in apparentcontradiction, the violence against Black and ethnic minority women and their struggles against it are made invisible, except where they can be blamed on practicessupposedly unique to Black and ethnic minority cultures – forced marriage, honour killings and Female Genital Mutilation and so on. Join us to discuss these disturbing developments and look at the reality behind the myths

 *Who are the perpetrators of violence against women and girls in Britain and who are the victims and survivors?

* Why are ‘race’ and‘culture’ selectively invoked in discussions of violence against women and
girls?   Is racial profiling for potential perpetrators taking place?

*How do the moregeneral cuts to services and legal aid affect violence against women and girls and what do they tell us about the government’s commitment to combating this kind of violence?

Organised by Freedom Without Fear Platform

FREEDOM WITHOUT FEAR PLATFORM was set up in London UK, in solidarity with the anti-rape movement in India. It is an arena for Black, South Asian and ‘Minority Ethnic’ women to lead discussions on the violence against women and girls; to counter imperialist racist discourse that UK mainstream media bombards us with and; to highlight the co-opting of violence against women and girls issues by various groups who seek to further their own racist/anti-immigration/ Islamophobic agendas.