Responding to violence against South Asian women in the British domestic violence movement

Over the last decade there has been an increasing amount of societal and political attention given to violence against women in South Asian communities in Britain. This mounting interest has mostly been focused on specific forms of abuse – namely honour-based violence and forced marriage – which have been associated predominantly with South Asian, and in particular Muslim, cultures. However, evidence suggests that Western conceptualisations and responses to this violence have been largely informed by simplistic and essentialist notions of culture, leading to stereotypes and misapprehensions of South Asian communities as homogenous, patriarchal and inherently violent, and of South Asian women as passive victims waiting to be rescued by more civilised (Western) societies. To date there is currently little, if any, empirical research that examines how the British domestic violence movement is operating in this difficult terrain. This snapshot
outlines an aspect of my PhD research which aims to examine how notions of culture and difference shape movement responses to violence against South Asian women.