TWO-BROWNGIRLS

RUZWANA BASHIR - ‘THEY’RE NOT VICTIMS, THEY’RE SURVIVORS’

We recently received a heartfelt message about the reports about Pakistani men sexual abusing and grooming 1400 girls in Rotherham and believe it’s extremely important to raise awareness of this issue. 

Ruzwana Bashir, CEO of Peek.com in San Fransisco, was actually born in humble old Skipton, a Yorkshire town in the North of England. She recently came forward with a statement that she was sexually abused as a young girl and worked to bring the abuser to justice. 

Here is another excellent piece about the issue of abuse within Muslim communities here in Britain but actually the majority of the girls in the Rotherham case were white. 

One pattern emerges though, the perpetrators are mainly of Pakistani descent and many Asian girls feel ashamed to bring their cases forward. Now this isn’t a call to stereotype Pakistani men in anyway but we have to look at the deeply entrenched patriarchal structure that says women should be ashamed if they are abused and that perhaps men feel that it’s valid to treat women this way. 

I’m sure there are support networks out there for women to come forward and talk to and it would be great to know more about these organisations to spread the word about where girls and boys can go for anonymous support. It would be great to see prolific people like Ruzwana take more action and perhaps set up an organisation to take the issue forward and make a change about how abuse is dealt with in the community. 

We pray that the survivors have the strength to overcome their abuse and that the abusers come to justice. 

- S