There have been several outdated ideologies and practices which oppress Sikh women and have wrongly been associated with reflecting Sikh culture.

Sukhvinder Kaur, the 43 year old Sikh Women’s Aid Co-founder and Chair of Trustees has been a powerful figure in championing the rights of Sikh women.

“I think we’re still navigating it, it’s hard to disrupt toxic practices which have been branded as cultural practices,” says Sukhvinder.

“It is really separating the perpetrators and their patterns and their technologies that have just been allowed to be embedded into culture.

“For example, if you’ve ever been to a Sikh Punjabi wedding, you always hear these amazing tunes, and everyone’s on the dance floor and bopping away, but when you start to listen to what these songs are talking about, they’re talking about women being oppressed by men, how women try to fight back against oppression and female infanticide.”

Throughout Sukvinders’ career, she has been a safe space for not only building connections with marginalised women but also directly tackling toxic cultural beliefs.

The organisation was created as a safe space specifically for Sikh women due to the distinct needs and marginalisation of Sikh women.

Sikh Women’s Aid’s predecessor organisation, SWAN, saw a 216% increase in demand and that was the motivation to restart the organization, with six domestic homicides within the community.

Sukhvinders’ co-founder, who worked at a midlands based refuge service realised that whilst South Asian women were coming through, there was a lack of Sikh Punjabi women.

“Our co-founder told us how she just wasn’t seeing them anywhere, so where we used to run a generic South Asian service, we made the decision after lockdown to think, actually, our community, our culture has very specific needs,” says Sukvinder.

“Yes, there’s overlap with other communities because we’re racially minoritised in this country, so we do share a lot of experiences with other cultures, but even then, there are key differences.

“Within the Sikh Punjabi community, there’s a preference for a boy child and female infanticide; there are attitudes and beliefs that are attributed to the community as a culture but actually its perpetrator’s behaviour.”

The organisation has been a cornerstone for Sikh women, providing a helpline that supports Sikh Punjabi women across the country.

“The inspiration was really to say why do people keep saying this is Sikh culture, as the Sikh faith condemns violence against women and girls in the strongest terms. The faith lends precedent to our work; it doesn’t diminish it, so that was really what initiated us to set up Sikh women’s aid.”

Sikh Women’s Aid successfully runs a national service despite not being funded nationally to deliver services. 

The team has formed bonds and connections with their clients through personal visits and arrangements for safe spaces in the community.

“We see very harmful narratives gain traction, that are just not true. There’s also the kind of lumping together of minoritised communities and their experiences, which is a struggle; for example, if I take the concept of female genital mutilation (FGM), it’s not something that impacts the Sikh community, but it’s very important.

“Sometimes I’m going into spaces where people think that FGM is an issue that affects Sikh Punjabi women, and it isn’t, but caste-based oppression is. It’s not racism; it’s class and caste; it is the hierarchical organisation of people based on characteristics.” 

The organisation continues to provide crisis intervention to Sikh women and is dedicated to making a pivotal change in the community. 

“One of the things that will stay with me, probably till the end of my days, was the case of a young 26 year old girl who had come from India on a spousal visa. She had entered into a contract marriage because she was from a poverty ridden family in Punjab.

“She married a rich elderly man. She was made totally dependent on her perpetrator; she was used for domestic labour for her in-laws. 

“When she was found out to be pregnant, her partner’s mother threw her out and said, ‘my son will only marry someone who has settled status in the UK, and he’s not going to marry what they call a ‘Freshie’, as in your Fresh from India, she was living on the street for five days, we were only made aware of this after her passing.

“The morning she decided to take her own life, she went to the temple, she informed the priest that she wanted her final prayers done because she was seeking  to end her life.”

“Why did we only hear about her after she died? We have a strong base in the locality that she lived in. She had no family here, and it was us that carried out her funeral. We raised 10k for her destitute family in India.” 

The cultural gaps here in the UK are also a contributing factor to the marginalisation of Sikh women in toxic communities. This is especially regarding accessing support. This epitomises how important bespoke services for specific cultures, like Sikh Women’s Aid, truly are.

Access to therapeutic support and caseworkers to navigate difficult situations are examples of some of the sources of support that Sikh women in need are given. 

“When we look at culture, there’s a fear of statutory bodies regulations that are secular in their nature. They were not designed for people of colour, who have come from rich heritages from their homeland.”

“It’s the people aspect of the work that I do; that’s what inspires me because there’s a generation coming up behind us; the generation coming up behind me is the single motivating factor for me, it’s that we are going to lose a lot of women if things don’t change at a grassroots level,” says Sukhvinder.

Head to the Sikh Women’s Aid site to find out more about how they are the groundbreakers in changing toxic cultural narratives and supporting women.

For support regarding any of the issues mentioned above, call 0333 090 1220, the Sikh Women’s Aid helpline or find alternative support on the website above. 

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