Black, Minority Ethnic and Refugee Women and VAW: Wider Context

1. Black, Minority Ethnic and Refugee Women and VAW: Wider Context Dr. Ravi Thiara Study of Safety and Well-being, University of Warwick R.K.Thiara@warwick.ac.uk

2. Setting the Scene • Commonalities and differences across • Settlement / incorporation • Construction / ‘othering’ of communities • Organisation / activism • 30 years of activism • Continuing issues and new challenges

3. Locating the issues – wider policy context • New funding frameworks – Supporting People – simpler way to commission services • Gender Equality Duty – gender blind approach • War on Terror and ‘Community Cohesion’ – erosion of ‘secular spaces’ • Immigration control – 9% women housed

4. Barriers / issues • 2005/06, 59% - 2/3rds – of London murders were BMER women • Few report to the police • Poor responses from mainstream services – 17 contacts (11) before positive response • Endure DVA for longer • Thus greater personal and social barriers

5. Value/prefer BMER specific services • Under current provision fewer routes to safety • Map of Gaps – access to DV services is a postcode lottery; fewer than 1 in 10 LAs have specialist BMER services • BMER services not a lack of integration but a respite, a way to build their confidence so they can be a part of society

6. Effective responses • Way we conceptualise oppression key to shaping effective responses to BMER women • Go out of comfort zone – look at how power operates between different groups of women • See culturally specific harms – FM &HBV – as an integral part of VAW • Need choice – central to development / delivery of services; need greater sensitivity in mainstream services/agencies & BMER women led services

7. Contact details R.K.Thiara@warwick.ac.uk Imkaan Tindlemanor, 52-54 Featherstone Street London EC1Y 8RT  (T) 020 7250 3933 www.imkaan.org.uk admin@imkaan.org.uk