&#;We need to move from identity politics to a politics of solidarity&#; – interview with Pragna Patel
Pragna Patel has been a powerful advocate for women’s rights for over four decades. From , she was Director of Southall Black Sisters (‘SBS’), an anti-fundamentalist, anti-racist and feminist campaigning organisation for black and minority women. She will be giving the National Secular Society’s Bradlaugh Lecture on 1 October , on the topic of ‘dissent and resistance in defence of women’s rights and secularism’.
I spoke to Pragna via Zoom, to find out more about her story, motivations, personal challenges, attitude towards religion, and the changing nature of the problems facing women of minority backgrounds since she first became involved with SBS in the early s.
Freethinker: What motivated you to become involved in campaigning for minority women’s rights?
PragnaPatel: I grew up in a traditional Indian family where women were expected to conform to strict gender roles and patriarchal norms – where they were expected to get married, to have their marriage partners chosen for them, to stay in the home and look after children and in-laws. These were all mapped
When Kiranjit Ahluwalia was jailed for life for setting fire to her husband Deepak in May , a small band of dedicated activists picked up a baton that Kiranjit’s legal team had dropped.
Kiranjit had suffered a decade of abuse and unspeakable brutality at the hands of her husband and now faced a tariff of 12 years in jail while her young children were brought up by her abuser’s family.
The women of Southall Black Sisters first helped Kiranjit’s sister win custody of her two children.
Despite an original legal team who advised there were no grounds of appeal, Southall Black Sisters compiled a dossier of evidence and a campaign so persuasive, Kiranjit was not only released from prison three years later, but the way courts interpreted ‘provocation’ as a defence to murder was never the same again.
Kiranjit’s is but one of a litany of notorious cases and campaigns with which Southall Black Sisters have redefined human rights for women and minorities over the past four decades.
Celebrating the fortieth year of Southall Black Sisters, Pragna Patel who has been at the helm of the group through most of its biggest campaigns told The London Economic “highlighting Kiranji
Pragna Patel is a founding member of Southall Black Sisters’ advocacy and campaigning centre and Women Against Fundamentalism (now non-operational). She worked as a coordinator and senior case worker for Southall Black Sisters (SBS) from to when she left to train and practise as a solicitor. In she returned to SBS as its director. For 40 years, she has been centrally involved in some of SBS’s most important cases and campaigns involving domestic violence, immigration and religious fundamentalism. She is also a member of Feminist Dissent and has written extensively on race, gender and religion.
Hello Sisters.
What a hopeful moment in history we have reached as feminists!
I know you are thinking: “What is she talking about in these times of growing social, political, economic and climate crisis.” But what I also want to acknowledge and celebrate today is the fact that all over the world women are leading an unmistakably secular resistance against tyranny, misogyny and oppression. There is a new kind of feminism stirring in the air. The women of Rojava have long been lone stars in trying to forge a new social contract. But they are now joined by women from around the globe. Fr
Pragna Patel
Pragna Patel is a founding member of the Southall Black Sisters (SBS) and Women Against Fundamentalism. She worked as a co-ordinator and senior case worker for SBS from to , when she left to train and practice as a solicitor. In she returned to SBS as its Director. She has been centrally involved in some of SBS’ most important cases and campaigns around domestic violence, immigration and religious fundamentalism. She has also written extensively on race, gender and religion.
Please tell us about your best day at work?
There are many. But I suppose it has to be in when I along with other SBS members walked besides Kiranjit Ahluwalia, an Asian mother of two, as she came out of prison after a long two year campaign waged by SBS for her freedom. It was an exhilarating moment! Kiranjit had suffered 10 years of domestic violence and had been unable to exit due to fear, the stranglehold of her religion and culture and her lack of awareness of her rights and the absence of alternative support systems. Eventually in desperation she killed her abusive husband but found herself convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. We had no idea when we took up her c
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