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Southall Black Sisters

Women's rights organisation

Summary

Women's rights organisation

FieldValue
formation1979
abbreviationSBS
founding_locationSouthall
tax_id1204937
registration_id03037955
statusCharity
purposeProviding holistic specialist support services in relation to all forms of domestic abuse, sexual abuse and honour-based abuse
headquarters21 Avenue Road
location_citySouthall, London
location_countryUnited Kingdom UB1 3BL
regionEngland
leader_titleExecutive Director
leader_nameSelma Taha
key_peoplePragna Patel
revenue£3,679,997
revenue_year2024
expenses£3,657,599
expenses_year2024
staff23
staff_year2024
awardsSecularist of the Year (2010)
websitehttps://southallblacksisters.org.uk/
footnotesCharity Commission overview

Southall Black Sisters (SBS) is a non-profit organisation based in Southall, West London, England. This women's group was established in August 1979 in the aftermath of the death of anti-fascist activist Blair Peach, who had taken part in a demonstration against a National Front rally at Southall Town Hall. In 1980, SBS successfully campaigned against virginity testing in the UK, a policy that was being used to verify the authenticity of Asian marriages by checking the state of women's hymens.

History

The SBS was originally established in order to provide a focus for the struggle of Asian women in the fight against racism, but became increasingly involved in defending the human rights of Asian women who are the victims of domestic violence and in campaigning against religious fundamentalism.

Throughout most of its existence, the group's primary campaigners have been Pragna Patel, Meena Patel and Hannana Siddiqui. Gita Sahgal, the writer and journalist (on issues of feminism, fundamentalism, and racism), film director, and human rights activist, has also been an active member of the organization.

They are best known for the role they played in the Ahluwalia case in 1989 when a woman named Kiranjit Ahluwalia set fire to her abusive husband. They supported her in the case, and were eventually successful.

In 2008, SBS won a legal challenge against Ealing Council, which had threatened to withdraw their funding for black and other ethnic minority women in the borough, in order to fund services for all women regardless of ethnic background. The Council sought to justify its decision on the grounds of "equality", "cohesion" and "diversity".

Awards and recognition

In 2010, the organisation was awarded Secularist of the Year by the National Secular Society, in recognition of their support of black and Asian women's human rights.{{cite news | archive-date = 9 November 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201109001854/https://www.secularism.org.uk/secularist-of-the-year-prize-awa.html | url-status = dead

In July 2015, Pragna Patel was a co-recipient of the inaugural Bob Hepple Equality Award, alongside Mauro Cabral of GATE. The award is named for Bob Hepple, the former lawyer of Nelson Mandela. In 2011, Patel was named in The Guardian as one of the Top 100 Women Activists and Campaigners.

References

  • Gupta Rahila (ed.) (2003) From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers: Southall Black Sisters London: Zed Books

References

  1. (27 July 2000). "Sisters of mercy". Guardian News and Media.
  2. 'Against the Grain', SBS Tenth Anniversary book, 1989.
  3. (2016-11-16). "SBS Timeline {{!}} Southall Black Sisters". Southall Black Sisters.
  4. Gupta, Rahila. (2008-03-20). "Sidelined Sisters". The Guardian.
  5. Chohan, Satinder (1999), [https://books.google.com/books?id=qHiVvKbSLX8C&pg=PA66 "black women's movement"], in Peter Childs, Michael Storry (eds), ''Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture'', Routledge, p. 66.
  6. Southall Black Sisters. (2016-11-16). "Save Southall Black Sisters campaign (2008) {{!}} Southall Black Sisters". Southall Black Sisters.
  7. . (July 21, 2015). ["The Inaugural Bob Hepple Equality Award Celebrates Equal Rights Activists and Advances Support to their Cause"](https://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/the-inaugural-bob-hepple-equality-award-celebrates-equal-rights-activists-and-advances-support-to-their-cause/). *[[Oxford Human Rights Hub]]*.
  8. (July 2015). "Mandela lawyer award winner announced". [[The Law Society Gazette]].
  9. Saner, Emine. (2011-03-08). "Pragna Patel {{!}} Top 100 women". The Guardian.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1979-establishments-in-england anti-racist-organisations-in-the-united-kingdom asian-british-culture-in-london black-british-culture-in-london black-feminist-organizations feminism-in-england feminism-in-the-asian-diaspora non-profit-organisations-based-in-london organizations-established-in-1979 secularism-in-england southall women-in-london women's-organisations-based-in-england
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