Karma Nirvana's e-petition to 10 Downing Street

[chweetgurl]

I hope all is well.

I Post this topicl and ask members to see the link below and spend a minute signing Karma Nirvana's e-petition to 10 Downing Street. As mentioned, it will only take you a minute, but will potentially change thousands of lives. You have the chance to make a difference, I hope you choose to do so.

Please go to the link below

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Honourline/

Best Wishes

[secret]

Thanks, I will sign this and send an email out to my contacts

[saffron]

Thats great...youve beat me to it...Im glad the message is getting round. Jasvinder Sanghera has persoanlly approached us for support so its very important that we get as many people as possible to sign up... My names down already.

[chweetgurl]

i m in too...i have forwarded it to my friends too...
I saw this on facebook saffron thought wud spread a word and support the very useful project

[secret]

it says on the petition page that they are closing the helpline this december?? Thats awful, something needs to be done.

[secret]

urgh. Ive had a flick through the names on the petition. considering i sent this link to at least 20 people (friends and family) it's really sad that only 1 of them has bothered to sign.

[Effie]

Hi Everyone, Is this helpline still due to close??

Do we still need to get names on this petition? or has it gone to Downing Street already?

If the petition is still open then I will make sure this is cascaded out to everyone on my contacts list at home/work.

Effie x

[a.c.]

I defer to Saffron on this question, but as far as I understand the outlook is bleak.

The petition still stands, and has 1,705 signatures which is great in one way and not in another...

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Honourline/

There needs to be a radical change of game from the big campaigning groups next year or they will start fading due to lack of funding. That's my belief anyway. They have to start working together, focusing their members and friends on big ticket campaigns to generate concentrated support that makes a splash in the media. They also need to speak out and give public support to campaigns that bloggers and journalists can get involved with.

Starting to take their message into problem communities, rather than always asking for changes in State agencies (police, courts, social services etc.), would be a bold start and would be (almost!) universally well-received.

More to come on this I'm sure...

[saffron]

 At the moment all I can say is that people should not stop phoning the helpline, we will hear more hopefully soon. Continue to sign is what I would say...I must say I know people who would support the helpline continuing..but havn't had time to sign...we need to continue to encouage signing..

[saffron]

 Ive put this separatly...re ac raising an important question around campaigning groups to unite...I dont know enough about ALL the groups involved in Honour network lines if Im really honest, I know a few women who are involved in forced marriage training and debate...some general individuals and organisations who provide training and offer advice.

I also know that the forced marriage unit have been involved in taking calls for a few years...And that some of the main officers involved with these have lost their posts?

I just wonder how much commitment the govt has to support campaigning groups... given that the forced marriage unit... who have power to legislate and take action... have had these cut backs .

What I do know from these observations is that the govt is therfore  not listening to campaigners.

With the arrival of many additional taxes to us as individuals...ie..petrol prices up.... stamp duty for housing reintroduced... and everything else we pay vat for inevitably being paid at a higher tax level....this govt does not consider the risks to men and women..that we often discuss on here..as needing any additional support from them...its very shortsighted...as further embarrasment  to them in the form of the recent horrific cases we have recently seen,will only anger the communities who do want action...not just asian communities in my view..Asianl communities for one will have their sons and daughters  to worry about...their wider familes, and friends who will be affected, the shame will be the communities..unless they can rise above this and see that change is as much about attitude as it is about services.

How do we take this issue into the problem communities as you say ac ? I'm intersted to know how this process might work.

[a.c.]

Hey Saffron, good question. How would it work?

As a starting point we can make a few assumptions:

1) there is overwhelming public support for any initiative that combats forced marriage and HBV.

2) a possible Conservative administration (esp. Sayeeda Warsi) will be looking for ways to make an early impact on this issue

3) Initiatives that require less funding to succeed wil lbe looked upon more favourably.



With those things in mind, we first need to devise a core message that will underpin all the work we do. Something like 'free choice in marriage is a human right'.

We would then need to initiate a series of actions which are ALL news worthy, and will get coverage in the media, to promote that core message.

For instance (assuming that we can sell this idea to Karma Nirvana) Jasvinder Sanghera could set up an initiative to communicate directly with young people, especially those who may not have experienced anything bad but who are sympathetic to the message.


Basically have a central web point which empowers sympathetic supporters to communicate the core message.

Set up a website or even a Facebook group and encourage members to stand up for basic human rights at home or in places of worship. Have a competition to find the most innovative way that a group has promoted the message in their local community.


There should also be a serious attempt to promote effective communication through schools.

We missed a very important bit of news around the time of the Tulay Goren verdict. The Telegraph reported a new initiative in schools to combat negative attitudes to women. The initiative is obviously aimed at tackling HBV, but because of political corectness it is being taught to all pupils, not focused on high-risk groups:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6645444/Gender-equality-lessons-for-every-child-will-not-address-honour-based-crime.html

As campaigning groups we should be able to advocate for more targetted work in schools. However, this goes back to the issue of standing together. If only a couple of groups speak up, it is easy to dismiss. However, if there was some sort of umbrella organisation who could speak on behalf of all the groups, it would be very powerful.

Am umbrella group would also help us to recruit celebrities to deliver the core message. There are people in all areas of the media who we could ask to help us. At the moment we have no celebrity spokespeople, except that Meera Syal has done a small amount of advocacy in the past.

More ideas soon, but they will all be about delivering an agreed core message directly to young people in problem communities.

What do you think we should do?

[secret]

If we could get a speaker we could arrange an open lecture in uni's. I know at my uni they had all sorts of speakers and the uni themselves promoted the lectures. My uni had a very high percentage of asian students so this might have gone down well there.

The only problem with that kind of thing is hecklers.

[saffron]

ac...the ideas you raise are very good, who would make the start to this work is a point in question even if we could get them on board?  Its a longterm projected initiative to effect communities in time to enable change?

I think its great. Im almost not sure if I should say how I feel about my optimism at best, and at times my feeling as a survivor... with my survivors hat on...which is.. that is we prioritize and continue to safeguard and protect the people facing forced marriages...I know...this will only patch things but not deal with the greater issues of communities supporting and bringing change amongst themselves on these big issues.

Part of this thinking has come from personal experience, not political as it would have done in the past..when I was much younger. Part of it sadly has come from strongly held beliefs by people I saw around me whilst growing up,beliefs about change is only possible if it is going to benefit the traditions that will uphold the family, arranged marriage is one of them..not necesarily forced marriage...but remember our recent debate on a certain blog...? That the diference between the 2 is not always apparent...depends on what yu went through in thed deal and how you experience that marriage if limited choice is involved.

At the present time ...I believe that change will come if we equipp and resource men and women to make choices for how they want to live, for organisations to have resources to help make the change for these individuals into their futre, and for their children to know the difference that this has made.
Theres plenty more I can say, perhaps its based on the traditional thinking that I saw within my own family, as I could not imagine how they would change unless it was through the next generation...I hope that I have started that with my own life and the life of my children.

[a.c.]

Secret your idea is a good one about going into universities. What we would need is an overall umbrella group to put together the core messages for people to take with them. This links into Saffron's point about organisation though... How does anyone even begin to unite the different campaigning groups?

I think the first thing is to ask all of them what they consider to be our common objective. We are all pulling in roughly the same direction, so we must be able to agree on a common objective?

Saffron I agree fully about the objective to prioritise the safety of victims and potential victims. We cannot lose sight of that objective, it is a charitable purpose... however, surely over time the best way to protect people is to challenge the architecture of the problem that surrounds them?

I agree that it is difficult to advocate change directly, but I think we must. Within the most at-risk communities there will be a proportion of people who agree with us but currently stay silent. If we speak out then they will be encouraged to stand up. They just need leadership... from someone who belongs to that community.

If that leader stood up, then they would find politicians ready to back them. Look at the Telegraph story above- they are already pushing education in schools (even if it is not very well targeted).

[a.c.]

One more thing... with regard to the family being a priority...

I think there is a case for highlighting the POSITIVES from the cultures we would be challenging. The committment to family is a very positive aspect of e.g. Asian culture. It is something that would also go down well politically with any party that wants to support traditional family structures...