Full Description
Against all the odds, Southall Black Sisters, a poorly funded, radical women's group has become synonymous with black British feminism over the last twenty-one years. They have not merely offered welfare advice from their West London base but have spearheaded campaigns on a range of issues from abused women who kill (such as the celebrated case of Kiranjit Ahluwalia) to the dangers posed to women by the rise of religious fundamentalism.
This important anthology makes the connections between race, gender and class and ensures that a neglected area of current feminist debate is not lost to history through a failure to record insights gained in the heat of activism. A provocatively argued book, From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of the relationship between the disempowered margins of society and the state and the power balance between men and women.
Contents
1. Some recurring themes: Southall Black Sisters, 1979 - and still going strong - Rahila Gupta
2. Struggle not submission: domestic violence in the nineties - Anita Johal
3. Taking or giving refuge? - Muneeza Inam
4. It was written in her kismet: forced marriage - Hannana Siddiqui
5. Silent witnesses: domestic violence and black children - Meena Patel
6. Sad, mad or angry? Mental illness and domestic violence - Meena Patel and Hannana Siddiqui
7. Jumping through hoops: Immigration and Asylum - Poonam Joshi
8. The tricky blue line: black women and policing - Pragna Patel
9. Orange is not the only colour: Young women, religious identity, youth and the Southall community - Sukhwant Dhaliwal
10. Ram or Rambo? The rise of Hindu fundamentalism - Pragna Patel
11. Shifting terrains - Old struggles for new? - Pragna Patel
12. Walls into bridges: the losses and gains of making alliances - Rahila Gupta
13. Black feminism in the 21st century: The Age of Women? - Hannana Siddiqui
