麻豆社

Good morning. Last week Anil Gill from Milton Keynes was jailed for brutally murdering his wife Ranjit Gill. Her sister said: 鈥淚n her life she faced the evil that he caused, and in her last hours she was faced with her death, the brutality and the terror of her own husband intent on murdering her and doing her harm.鈥� A recent report by Sikh Women鈥檚 Aid suggests that even today concepts of honour and shame can prevent Sikh women from seeking help. Ranjit鈥檚 family encouraged victims to speak out and not to become a statistic like her.

According to Counting Dead Women, a project that tracks femicide in the UK, so far this year there are at least 123 cases of women who have been killed by men or where a man is the principal suspect. The deaths of Sarah Everard, sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, Sukhjeet Uppal, Sabina Nessa and most recently Bobbi-Anne McLeod have highlighted the dangers women and girls in the UK still face.

And yesterday was The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 鈥� the first of 16 days of global activism. Despite this being its 30th year, campaigns like this are sadly still necessary to raise awareness of 鈥渇emicide鈥� and how we can address it in all communities.

Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh tradition was born into a patriarchal social structure in which women were considered to be repositories of family prestige and honour. Guru Nanak was deeply anguished and conscious of the harms that women faced due to men and notions of honour. By recognising that the Divine is in all, he actively challenged men to change their behaviour so that women鈥檚 鈥榮hyness and hesitation have died and gone, and they can walk with their face unveiled.鈥�

Last week the Minister for Women and Equalities Liz Truss said 鈥榃omen and girls across the world should be able to live without fear of violence.鈥� It reminded me of the vision for an ideal society set out in Sikh scripture. This 'city without sorrow' is known as Begumpura and it鈥檚 a place where 鈥楾here is no suffering or anxiety, there are no troubles, there is no fear and they stroll about freely, just as they please.鈥�

Violence against women and girls knows no national, religious, cultural or social boundaries. I ask myself what are our global values and attitudes towards women if we still need yearly awareness days and declarations to say violence against women is not OK? All communities need to address toxic practices through better education so we can have a world in which all our daughters, sisters, nieces and mothers can live freely and safely just like in Begumpura.

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