It’s been a year since Sarah Everard lost her life after being raped and strangulated to death by a Met Police officer, who burned her body and disposed it off in a pond. In an exclusive interview with Asian Voice, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan admitted that “Women and girls tell me they do not always feel safe in our city.” The Met Police has told the newsweekly that their work to “build trust is ongoing and gathering pace”.
However, the UK continues to witness many gruesome stories of rape, murder and kidnapping. The Met Police has been heavily scrutinised for its work culture and conduct, which also led to the resignation of the Commissioner. In her email to officers to stamp out criminal and bad behaviour in scandal-hit police, former Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick had categorically urged such officers to leave the force and demanded more officers should come forward to report any toxic, unhealthy team bullies.
Liz Truss’s cuts to international aid disproportionately affected women and girls despite her flagship policy to lift them out of poverty, leaked Foreign Office documents have revealed. Responding to a leak of the Government’s equalities assessment indicating that the Government was aware that women and girls, and others with protected characteristics, were more likely to be harmed by its far-reaching aid cuts, Preet Kaur Gill MP, Labour's Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development, said, "This document is a damning indictment of the decision to cut the aid budget in the middle of a pandemic, made even worse by the fact it has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the light.”
A Met Police spokesperson told Asian Voice that their work to build trust is very much ongoing and gathering pace. “In October we announced an independent review of the Met’s culture and standards Baroness Louise Casey began this review at the beginning of February. A review of all current investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct and domestic abuse against our officers and staff is ongoing.”
The Met Police said that they have not waited for a final plan before improving their response to violence against women and girls. Since last November they have arrested over 2,500 suspects, of which over half of the cases were related to domestic abuse.
Sanam Arora, Chairperson of National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK (NISAU UK) is appreciative of the Met Police and believes that students do feel safe. Speaking to the newsweekly, Sanam said, “The UK and London is one of the safest destinations for Indian students and the wider diaspora who chooses to live and work in the UK. I congratulate all the men and women across the Met and all other related agencies who help ensure that women like me feel safe and empowered to go about our business as we want.”
Left shaken by a cab driver
Communications Consultant Perveen Akhtar has had a terrible experience with a black cab driver before Christmas. “I hailed the cab on my local high street and gave him my address. He said he’d put it in his satellite navigation. I should have had alarm bells because black cab drivers don’t use sat navs. We dropped a friend off enroute and then he went off in a completely wrong direction. When I challenged him, he ordered me to get out of the cab and abandoned me late at night on a grass verge along with the A4 and I had to walk home along unlit roads. I reported the incident to TfL and a few weeks later I just got a standard response saying there was nothing they could do as no identifiers were given. The onus was also on me to try and investigate if there was any CCTV of the road I was dumped on. The incident left me really shaken,” Akhtar told Asian Voice.
Akhtar thinks that not much has changed over the past year. “I don’t think much has changed unfortunately over the past year. Those words from the former Met Police Commissioner feel weak and hollow. The Met’s treatment of women at the vigil for Sarah Everard under Dame Dick’s leadership was shocking and Dame Cressida Dick’s advice to women to hail down a bus if they are approached by a lone male officer was just ridiculous. I know she later said it was taken out of context, but whatever the context, the comment was just ludicrous and ill-thought,” she added.
Expecting change is naive
LibDem Cllr Rabina Khan says that any management consultant knows that the most difficult aspect of an organisation to change is its culture. No matter the sector or industry, culture is ingrained and so all-encompassing it is invisible. She said, “A police force, be that the Metropolitan Police or any other is no different. In fact, in many respects, it may be even harder to change the culture than in other similar-sized organisations. By virtue of its daily tasks, a police force will tend to be inward-looking and set itself apart from the rest of society. To expect any change in the police's attitude towards women and their safety in the year since the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer is unrealistic at best, naive at worst. But change must happen.
“Until we see the government leading the way by taking on the recommendations by women, we should not expect this change. I doubt if any women of my acquaintance feel any safer on the streets of London (I certainly do not) but this must be one of the primary goals of better, more open-minded police forces across the UK. One email from the Commissioner is not going to make a huge difference, but at least it is a start.”
Covid-19 lockdowns have exposed a crisis being faced by women and girls
While Sukhvinder Kaur, Co-Founder/Chair Sikh Women’s Aid welcomes the move by the Home Office to make preventing violence against women a priority alongside terrorism, she feels “this is not enough” and much legislation has been passed but without the right enforcement. She said, “It will change nothing.”
Kaur said, “As a Women’s organisation that supports victims of abuse, we desperately need the police to do their job well and sadly that is not the case right now. Covid19 lockdowns have exposed a crisis being faced by women and girls and no community, faith or socio-economic group is exempt, the Sikh and Panjabi community included.”
Commenting on how we can prevent more Sarahs and Sabinas from falling prey to tragedies due to lack of safety for women, Kaur said, “The toxic mentality that is witnessed by the public on a daily basis, needs to be challenged, investigated and firm sanctions enforced.”
Kaur feels that safe working, travelling, partying beyond the evening requires a huge amount of surveillance. “It is the opinion of Sikh Women’s Aid that women are much more fearful of their safety. In some cases, money-saving exercises by local councils like switching off street lighting at night are adding to the fear and risk to women,” she added.
Women have come to SWA in crisis. often when they have been failed by the police and asking for us to step up and speak to the police on their behalf. Kaur explained that women from the Sikh & Panjabi Community who, after being abused, are waiting weeks for a statement to be taken or when statements are taken, they hear remarks such as “but ain’t that stuff like, normal in your religion love?”
“So based on real-life cases studies, the trust between victims and the Police in our community is at its lowest,” the SWA chair answered.
According to her, we are living in a time where we are going backwards in securing convictions of domestic and sexual abuse offences. “There is so much focus on women making their surroundings safe, downloading apps, being asked to keep panic alarms and car keys in their hands, and not enough work being done to challenge toxic masculinity and patriarchal belief systems. This now must change otherwise women will continue to die in this way,” Kaur told Asian Voice.
Five years since #MeToo, we need action, not just words
Seconding the sentiment of the women, Cllr Krupesh Hirani AM, London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow said, “The culture of violence against women and girls must end. Everyone should be able to walk on our streets or go online without fear of harm or harassment. We’re approaching five years since the #metoo campaign reignited the discussion around how sexism and abuse are endemic.
“Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa, Nicole Smallman, Bibaa Henry and Julia James are just some of the women recently killed by men as they went about their everyday lives – there are at least 125 in the past year alone.”
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Sadiq Khan: Women and girls tell me they do not always feel safe in our city
In an exclusive interview with Asian Voice, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan answered some questions for our readers as we mark one year of Sarah Everard’s death. Below are some excerpts:
Is the Commissioner’s call for bad officers to go enough? Can women trust the police?
Mayor: We must also urgently restore the trust and confidence of Londoners in our police. In addition to the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah by a serving police officer, we have seen a series of high-profile incidents that have shattered public trust even further. Therefore, I have been very clear with the Met that an urgent plan is needed to root out the serious cultural issues with misogyny, racism and homophobia within the Met, and to restore public confidence.
Baroness Casey has been appointed to conduct an independent review into the Met’s culture and standards, which will address the issues of misogyny, sexism, racism and homophobia, and scrutinise police processes and standards of behaviour amongst officers and staff. In the meantime, the Met has set out the immediate action it is taking to rebuild public trust and confidence, and I want to reassure Londoners that I will continue to hold the Met to account on delivering these commitments so that we see the changes we need right now to rebuild trust in the police and to make our city safer for women and girls.
How can we prevent more Sarahs and Sabinas from falling prey to tragedies due to lack of safety for women?
Mayor: I want every woman and girl to be safe, and to feel safe – whatever time of day, whatever they are wearing and wherever they are in the capital.
That’s why from City Hall we are continuing to invest record funding in programmes that change the behaviour of perpetrators of abuse, provide specialist support to victims, and deliver a relentless focus on tackling the misogynistic attitudes that allow certain crimes to continue.
I am clear, we must not simply respond to male violence against women and girls – we must prevent it. That means focusing on holding the perpetrator of abuse accountable for their actions and for change.
Is London safe for working/travelling/partying beyond the evening?
Mayor: Women and girls tell me they do not always feel safe in our city – which is why I’m determined to do more to make London safer and welcoming for everyone. Now restrictions have eased and Londoners and visitors to the city are making the most of the capital’s bars and nightlife, I want women, girls and everyone out in London to be safe, and to feel safe – whatever time of day and wherever they are in the capital.
We are working closely with night venues, London Councils, the Police, businesses, Transport for London, gyms and a host of partners to do everything we possibly can to make London safer for women and girls.
It is simply not right that women and girls across our country feel unsafe going about their daily lives. I am clear that it’s not women who should have to change the way they live their lives - it's men that need to change. That is why I am launching a new campaign later this month to help tackle the appalling attitudes and behaviours that lead to violence. The campaign will speak directly to men, it will bring together partners from across the sporting world, high-profile male influencers, and include videos online and posters around the city that will remind men of their responsibility to challenge unacceptable attitudes and behaviour amongst their peers. It will urge and inspire men to make themselves responsible for effecting the change that is needed to root out sexism and misogyny from our society.
