Jasvinder Sanghera @ 5x15 - Karma Nirvana

[@sharrdashah3807]

Finally I know I am not alone. Similar to you I am a survivor of forced marriage, who chose to come out. It is great to see your work in helping the next generation. I am on cross roads in my life again, with no family speaking to me.

[@theaccidentaljournalist4704]

I love Jas dearly. I had the pleasure of interviewing her last year. Humble, loving and gentle soul. X

[@farahmukhtar184]

So brave jasvinder

[@burleybater]

What fascinates me off the top is that this woman is British. As British as many women who went long before her and spoke out eloquently and well about injustice. And why does that matter? I think it matters because it proves a point. That people are born and grow up and become themselves - beyond "acculturation" or stereotypes, or preconceived biases, pre-judged assumptions, restrictions, and all the other lovely little boxes that narrow minds love to construct around people, and especially those given to free thought and expression. So yes, according to respect for "diversity" not all British citizens are born with equal rights. The right to an education, personal autonomy as an adult, the right to choose one's calling in life, and most importantly, ownership over the truth of their own heart. Honor and shame are strange bedfellows. Married under the banner of control. Submission. Like taming a wild thing, really. Training an animal. To obey. Perform. That is such a one-dimensional thing for a human being to be. Permit me a small rant. The way that this issue affects young women in society is an outrage to any western man of conscience who believes in real equality. So in my fair country, where university students are being indoctrinated in droves about our society's so-called oppressive systemic patriarchy - they don't know what the hell they're talking about. They are complete and absolute cowards, conflating their tiny pussycat, their cute and cuddly little kitten - with the on charging lion of real patriarchal oppression. The real reason being, that they wouldn't confront that beast in a pig's eye. Why? It is too damned dangerous. Why was a blind eye turned by authority and government? Cultural sensitivity? Bloody hell. It is easy to ignore the plight of people who just don't matter. It is easy to ignore the strangeness, the difference, the otherness, So when a woman as a citizen steps forward and demands the same human rights as any other British born citizen, yes indeed, she comes included with the tendrils and attachments of cultural entrapment enveloping her "identity" as a diverse human. Yet it is her humanity itself which is the truly universal attribute to be valued and protected. If she be deemed as human as the males of her cultural specific. Which of course, she is not. How be it that we have not grown the social reactionary response, the great gangs of wild young people who "honor kill" their elders? For their misdeeds, mistakes, and true crimes against humanity? That's not the way it works, is it? I'm sure a Spanish conquistador way back there in the early sixteenth century felt quite bloody honorable whilst flinging mere helpless babes skyward to be pronged upon his sword like so much human shish kabob - down there in newfound Espanola. How is it that honor can become so incompatible with human freedom? Why is it that a "westernized" child becomes toxic and better dead than alive? How is that these once upon a traveler's dark crossing, these house guests do storm the ramparts, muddy the carpets and trash the very safe haven they came to find? Part of the answer to that question is that real freedom never did belong to them. A female born healthy in a western society, growing toward personal autonomy, becomes an abomination. When the honor of a family requires absolute control from cradle to grave, then that "honor" becomes as fragile as a candle flame in the face of an oncoming hurricane. And especially so within a free society.