Jasvinder is a survivor of a forced marriage. She is the founder of Karma Nirvana, a national award-winning charity that supports both men and women affected by honour-based abuse and forced marriages.
She is a highly acclaimed international speaker and an expert advisor to the courts in matters of child, civil and criminal proceedings, is a chair of domestic homicide reviews and was instrumental in ensuring that all UK police forces are required to improve their understanding of honour-based abuse and forced marriage by inspections conducted by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.
Her memoir ‘Shame’ was a Times Top 10 Bestseller and described in the House of Lords as a ‘political weapon’. Jasvinder is recognized as bringing the issue of forced marriage into the public domain and Prime Minister David Cameron stated that her work ‘turned my head on the issue of forced marriage’. Her work is recognized as being pivotal to the creation of a specific UK forced marriage criminal offense in 2014. Her successful claim of sexual harassment against a peer in the House of Lords was the first in its 479 year history and has already led to an increase in reporting and resulted in significant changes in the House of Lords policy and practice including greater debates and reforms, resulting in a House of Lords independent inquiry into sexual harassment and bullying.
She has received numerous awards including the prestigious Woman of the Year 2007. She was made an Honorary Doctor of the University of Derby in 2008. She was awarded The Pride of Britain Award in 2009 and was named Cosmopolitan Ultimate Woman of the Year in 2010. In 2011 she was listed in the Guardian’s top 100 Most Inspirational Women in the World and in 2012 received the Global Punjabi Award. She was awarded Commander of the British Empire in 2013 in recognition of her outstanding contribution for the victims of forced marriage and honour-based abuse and in 2014 was awarded Legal Campaigner of the Year. Jasvinder is also listed as an entry in the 2016 edition of the book Who’s Who and in the same year received the International Woman Award for human rights from the Italian media. In 2018 she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Law by De Montfort University, Leicester, Woman of the Year by Leeds City Council and in 2019 she was awarded the Robert Burns Humanitarian of the Year Award and also the Sikh Woman of Substance Award.
In this episode we discuss:
- The difference between forced and arranged marriages
- What the consequences were for Jasvinder running away at 15 years old and standing up to her mom by not going along with a forced marriage
- Why women have no say in who they marry
- What is an honour system, how it works, and why it’s more important than loving and doing what’s best for your child
- What a caste system is
- What her life looked like after her family disowned her
- How guilt, shame, isolation plagued her, and how her sister’s suicide was the turning point to her positive transformation
- When Jasvinder knew she made the right decision to run away
- Her life now as a campaigner and advocate to ending forced marriage
- What are the solutions to ending forced marriage and honour abuse
Connect with Jasvinder:
Website: www.jasvindersanghera.com
Nonprofit: www.karmanirvana.org.uk
Twitter: @Jas_Sanghera_KN
Connect with Ashley:
Website: www.ashleyrivard.com
Instagram: @ashleydrivard
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