#karma nirvana

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Jasvinder Sanghera is easily one of the most underrated feminists of our time. Her work has had a tremendous impact on the lives of South Asian women. Not only did she lobby to finally make forced marriages a crime in England, she also published two books on the subject and started a charity to assist victims of forced marriages and honor killings. This is a huge deal because Western shelters tend to ignore the needs of South Asian women and most people who are not desi fail to understand what life is like for desi women. Plus, she understands that this is a cultural practice and doesn’t just focus on one religious/ethnic group. Her organization, Karma Nirvana, helps everyone. I seriously love her so much. She is my role model.

It's part of a campaign for Karma Nirvana, the UK charity that helps victims of 'honour'-based violence, with this image highlighting the death of 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed - a British-Pakistani woman who was suffocated and murdered by her parents, in front of her siblings, after she refused an arranged marriage back in 2004.

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In 2004, a 17-year-old British-Pakistani woman named Shafilea Ahmed was suffocated and murdered by her parents, in front of her siblings, after she refused an arranged marriage. Her death is referenced clearly and heartbreakingly on limited-edition covers of the February issue of Cosmopolitan magazine in the U.K.

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One by one, young Jasvinder Sanghera watched as her parents sent her older sisters to India to get married. She ran away from home the day before she was to board a plane to India. Propelled by the death of her sister who set herself on fire to escape her unhappy marriage, she established Karma Nirvana as a place for survivors of honor crimes and gender-based violence to find help and support. The organization handles up to 700 calls within the week in the UK. “People have to acknowledge that even though you’re born in a democracy—in Britain or America—where you know you have rights and independence, those rights are not accessible to all. We, as a community, need to be looking for these invisible women who are suffering and help them find access to the human rights they deserve,” says Jasvinder.

One by one, young Jasvinder Sanghera watched as her parents sent her older sisters to India to get married. She ran away from home the day before she was to board a plane to India. Propelled by the death of her sister who set herself on fire to escape her unhappy marriage, she established Karma Nirvana as a place for survivors of honor crimes and gender-based violence to find help and support. The organization handles up to 700 calls within the week in the UK. "People have to acknowledge that even though you’re born in a democracy—in Britain or America—where you know you have rights and independence, those rights are not accessible to all. We, as a community, need to be looking for these invisible women who are suffering and help them find access to the human rights they deserve," says Jasvinder. Read more via Cosmopolitan.