Opting Out Of Life

HE statistics are alarming. Consider this: Asian women in Britain aged between 15HE statistics are alarming. Consider this: Asian women in Britain aged between 15 and 34 are exceptionally suicide-prone. Young Hindu women emigrants are three times as likely to commit suicide as their British counterparts. Indian women and East African women of Indian origin account for the overall high rate of suicide among Asians. Of these, 83 per cent are Hindus. Most are married and one in five commits suicide by setting herself a fire.

A recent University of Surrey study shows that high vulnerability marks the emigre Asian woman in UK. Dr Veena Soni Raleigh, who conducted the study, ascribes the 'high risk of self-harm' in young Indian women to family and community pressures, which are accentuated by the multi-cultural environment. And although Bangladeshi and Pakistani women are no better off, their suicide rate is low because Islam proscribes suicide.

The very fact of belonging to a minority compounds pressure on Asian women. "Racial discrimination on the outside and gender discrimination on the inside doesn't leave them with many options," observes Hanana Siddiqui of the Sout-hall Black Sisters (SBS), a resource centre. Of the 1,000 women who contact the SBS for help annually, most have either attempted suicide or do so later.

Domestic violence is often a factor associated with suicide attempts. The issue was first highlighted in the media when an abused Southall housewife, Krishna Sharma, committed suicide. The police subsequently set up domestic violence units, but with little effect, as the case of Veena Patel demonstrated. A battered housewife, she approached the domestic violence unit for help. But her husband tracked her down and stabbed her—right inside the police unit.

Most Asian women, unfortunately, are reluctant to approach the British police for help. Sarojini silently suffered abuse from her husband and in-laws and confesses to having attempted suicide twice. But she sought help only after she was evicted from her matrimonial home.

Efforts are afoot to bring about a change and to make Asian women feel more comfortable with constables, a police station in Halifax has had their policewomen don salwar kameezes, complete with embroidered jootis and glass bangles when interviewing Asian women with problems or attending community meetings.

But the apparatus of the State is not very effective in dealing with the problems of Asian women, Siddiqui maintains Social worker often don't intervene in cases of forced marriages---for fear of being accused of intolerance and racism if they do.

In some cases, the professionals even end up colluding with the oppressors. Siddiqui cites the case of a husband who had his wife committed to an asylum because she did not conform to traditional norms. Many traumatised, suicidal women are simply put on antidepressants by their doctors.

바카라 웹사이트The idea that Asian women are naturally passive and subject to a different set of rules, deny them access to aid more available to their British counterparts. Siddiqui says conflict occurs because women want freedom per se, regardless of cultural environment. While in some families, generations of Asian women in Britain are joining the mainstream, the reverse is also true. The wave of fundamentalism that divided minorities along religious lines, has hit women hard.

The SBS is also fighting against an immigration rule, which insists that a wife must live with her husband in England for a year before getting resident status. Many are trapped in a no-win situation—get beaten, or deported. From January 1994 to July 1995, 755 black migrant women were threatened with deportation when they fled family violence. Like Naheed, who was abused by her husband but dares not go home for fear of being ostracised or even killed. "I have managed to escape with my life from a violent man, yet I face another kind of death if I am returned to Pakistan," she says.

Language too can be a serious handicap. "Invariably, the woman is financially dependent on her husband and cannot even speak English," says Karen Venables, a lawyer who handles cases of marital dispute. The entire criminal justice system—the courts, social workers, lawyers and police—is dependent on an interpreter whose integrity cannot be questioned. As Venables puts it, for women in general and Asian women in particular, escaping from an abusive situation is not as easy as packing your bags and moving out.