Karma Nirvana is delighted to announce the launch of our campaign to put a statutory definition of Honour Based Abuse in place. This launched on International Women’s Day (8th March 2024), in memory of Fawziyah Javed.
Channel 4 recently aired The Push: Murder on the Cliff, which follows the trial of Kashif Anwar for the murder of Fawziyah Javed, who was pushed from Arthur’s Seat while pregnant. Fawziyah’s murderer was convicted; however, the Javed family are still left with the loss of their only child.
Honour Based Abuse (HBA) remains an insidious threat, hidden in the shadows of our communities, eluding detection due to its concealed nature. Despite three decades of increased awareness, addressing HBA is an ongoing challenge, hindered by the lack of a clear statutory definition.
Honour Based Abuse is a deeply complex issue, which is widely misunderstood, meaning that hundreds of victims are not being helped and perpetrators are escaping justice. It can take many forms, including child marriage, virginity testing, enforced abortion, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, as well as physical, sexual and economic abuse and coercive control. There is currently little accurate data on the true extent of Honour Based Abuse and its impact on women and girls – its true scale, scope and prevalence is not known, and so it remains a thriving but invisible problem. Honour Based Abuse is often thought of as a ‘cultural’, ‘traditional’ or ‘religious’ problem. Perpetrators are often partners or ex-partners, or family members. We know, through calls to our national Honour Based Abuse Helpline, that most victims experience abuse from multiple perpetrators, including parents and siblings.
It can lead to a deeply embedded form of coercive control, such as the coercive control seen in Fawziyah Javed’s case, and it is built on expectations about acceptable and unacceptable behaviours. Control is often established without overt violence against the victim. For example, family members may threaten to kill themselves or ostracise the victim.
Honour Based Abuse is a deeply entrenched issue that affects individuals across communities and cultures. Karma Nirvana recognises the importance of having a clear and comprehensive understanding of this complex issue, in order to ensure victims are supported effectively, their risks are assessed correctly, and that they are protected from harm. We hope this will help prevent future tragedies
We recognise that until a definition is put into the statute book and properly reflected in government language, this issue will continue to be misunderstood, under-represented and inadequately resourced.
More details about the campaign at https://karmanirvana.org.uk/campaigns/current-campaigns/define-hba/