From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers: Southall Black Sisters
Published in 2003 and edited by me, this collection of essays presents and analyses the issues that Southall Black Sisters, an underfunded, radical women’s group faced in the twenty-one years since its birth. They have not merely offered welfare advice from their West London base but have spearheaded campaigns on a range of issues from abused women who kill (such as the celebrated case of Kiranjit Ahluwalia) to the dangers posed to women by the rise of religious fundamentalism.
This important anthology makes the connections between race, gender and class and ensures that a neglected area of current feminist debate is not lost to history through a failure to record insights gained in the heat of activism. A provocatively argued book, From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of the relationship between the disempowered margins of society and the state and the power balance between men and women.
“Standing at the intersection of race, gender and class, Southall Black Sisters have changed the landscape of feminist activism” Baroness Helena Kennedy QC
‘Engaging and revealing… I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to a wide range of readers. It will be of immense value to practitioners working in the field of domestic violence research and activism, and it is an essential reference book for all those concerned about gender and human rights, as well as for sociology, law, political science, and social theory students and academics.’ Dr Aisha Gill, University of Roehampton, reviewed in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
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