THE SBS TIMELINE1979 | 1980 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
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| For a full narrative on the first ten years of SBS history, please see Against the Grain, Southall Black Sisters, 1990, available for purchase from Southall Black Sisters. |
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1979 |
| Founding of Southall Black Sisters. |
| Hundreds arrested and injured in police operation to
stop mass protest against NF presence in Southall. Blair Peach killed by Special Patrol Group Officers. Defence campaign followed. |
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1980 |
| Chix strike, Slough. Many Southall women on mass picket. |
| Campaign against virginity testing of Asian immigrant women. |
| Mrs Dhillon and her children set on fire by her husband. SBS protests. |
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1983 |
| GLC (Greater London Council) funding received. Southall Black Women's Centre established. |
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1984 |
| Krishna Sharma found hanged at home. Demonstration outside the house. Slogan "They say it's suicide, we say it's murder" "Black Women's tradition/Struggle not submission" Links set up with other campaigns on domestic violence. |
| Dispute in Brent refuge starts. Management locked out. Demand to run projects separately. |
| Miners' strike support activity. |
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1985 |
| Balwant Kaur murdered by her husband in Brent Asian Women's Refuge. Campaign to ensure her husband's conviction. |
| Refuge demands conceded. |
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1986 |
| The Gurdip Kaur campaign initiated in Reading following the murder of an Asian woman. Pickets and demos. Husband and brother-in-law conspired to murder. Brother-in-law charged with murder, got off with manslaughter. Charges against husband dropped. |
National demonstration of women against violence against women organised by Network of Women.
(click on image to view full poster) |
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| Helped to produce film, "A Fearful Silence", on domestic violence in Asian communities with Azad Productions. |
| Split in Southall Black Women's Centre. (click on image to view full poster) |
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1987 |
| New centre established in the name of Southall Black Sisters. |
| Anti-deportation campaign "Josephine & Peter must stay". |
| Dominion Centre campaign on safety of women workers. |
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1988 |
| Save SBS campaign. Funding threatened. Council lobbied. Slogan "Where will women go?" |
| Ealing FAB (Fight the Alton Bill which was an attempt to restrict women's access to abortion) Campaign. |
Launch of single homelessness campaign.
(click on image to view full poster) |
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1989 |
| International Women's Day meeting called "The resurgence of Religion? What price do women pay?' SBS & Labour Party, Southall Women's Section issue statement in support of Salman Rushdie. (click on image to view full poster) |
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| March and rally on tenth anniversary of Blair Peach's murder by police. |
| First meeting of Women Against Fundamentalism. |
| Women Against Fundamentalism picket religious Muslim demonstration demanding an extension of blasphemy laws. Demands include a secularization of British state, no state funding of religious education and abolition of the blasphemy law. Slogans "Our Tradition: struggle not submission", "Religious leaders don't speak for us", "Blasphemy laws police dissent", "Fear is your weapon/Courage is ours". |
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1990 |
| Publication of Against the Grain: A celebration of survival and struggle. |
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1991 |
| Set up the Save Our Schools Campaign with local groups, teachers and parents in Southall to prevent two schools opting out and becoming Sikh only schools. |
| Helped to launch "Remember Vandana Patel Campaign" with local Asian women's groups. |
| Launch of the Free Kiranjit Ahluwalia campaign, a woman who is given a life sentence for murder for setting her violent husband on fire in a final act of survival. |
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1992 |
| Kiranjit is released and her original conviction is quashed and reduced to manslaughter. |
| SBS gives evidence on how the one-year rule in immigration traps newly married women in violent situations to the Home Affairs Select Committee's inquiry into domestic violence. |
| SBS is awarded the Martin Ennals Civil Liberties Award by Liberty. |
| Memorial held for Abnash Bisla, killed by her husband. SBS also demonstrated outside the husband's house with a number of other Asian women's groups. |
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1993 |
| Pragna Patel, a member of the Management Committee, wins two Cosmopolitan Achievement Awards: in the Public Service category and is also the overall winner for the year. |
| Formed Alliance Against Communalism and for Democracy in South Asia with a number of local groups in Southall and Brent in the wake of the destruction of Babri Masjid in India by Hindu fundamentalist and Hindu and Muslim riots. Aimed to fight communal forces in South Asia and the UK. |
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1995 |
| SBS starts a campaign against the one-year immigration rule and wins Advice 2000's 'Challenge Award' in 'recognition of our efforts to gain justice'. |
| SBS sends a delegation of women to attend World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. |
| Successfully appealed in the case of an Asian woman with mental health problems who killed her child and had her conviction for murder reduced to manslaughter. |
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1996 |
| SBS makes a submission on immigration, asylum and domestic violence to the UN hearings on the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. |
| Memorial for Imtiaz Begum and her four children killed by her husband/their father in Birmingham and Bristol. Worked with local Asian women's groups. |
| SBS starts campaign to free Zoora Shah, a woman serving life for the murder of her abuser, Mohammad Azam in Bradford in 1992. |
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1997 |
| Secured a first-ever conviction of a husband in a marital rape in the Asian community. Members of his family were also sentenced for abusing his wife. |
| Publication of Circle of Light, the story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia's life, co-written with Rahila Gupta, a member of the MC. (click on image to view book cover) |
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1998 |
| Zoora Shah loses her appeal against her conviction for the murder of Mohammed Azam. SBS continues to explore other legal avenues including representations to the Home Secretary to reduce her 20-year tariff. |
| The conclusion of an internal review of SBS management and administrative structures resulted in SBS moving from a collective structure to a hierarchy. |
| SBS is nominated for the Ethnic Minority Charity for the Year by the Ethnic Minority Media Awards sponsored by Nat West Bank. |
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1999 |
| The House of Lords delivers a historic judgement in the Shah and Islam case: women who fear gender persecution should be recognized as refugees. We had advised one of the women and her legal team. |
| The Home Office announces concessions on the one-year rule for abused spouse/ partners subject to a probationary period following discussions with SBS. |
| SBS is invited to join The Home Office Working Group to inquire into the issue of forced marriage. |
| SBS, along with five other women's organizations, are the beneficiaries of money raised by a 'V-Day' charity event - the first celebrity readings of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues in the UK. |
| Hannana Siddiqui, Joint Co-ordinator, is nominated for the Emma Humphries Memorial Prize. |
| SBS supports the Lufthansa Skychef workers, most of whom were Asian women, sacked for going on a lawful one-day strike in protest against new working practices. |
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2000 |
| Southall Black Sisters Trust is set up. |
| After representations to the Home Secretary by SBS, Zoora Shah's sentence is cut down from 20 to 12 years. |
| SBS begins work on the case of Morgan James Smith in conjunction with Justice for Women and Liberty. The case involved the House of Lords deliberating on the defence of provocation under homicide law. Their conclusions reinforced the crucial advances made on the law of provocation in the cases of Ahluwalia, Thornton and Humphries. |
| Laid flowers outside the house of Jaspal Sohal, a local woman killed by her husband, who was later convicted of her murder. |
| The Home Office Working Group on Forced Marriage produces its report. SBS resigns from the Working Group over the issue of mediation. |
| SBS celebrates its 21st anniversary. |
| Pragna Patel is nominated for the Emma Humphries Memorial Prize. |
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2001 |
| SBS makes a presentation on the intersection between race and gender at the preparatory meetings for the UN Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and oral evidence to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, 45th Session, in New York. |
| SBS submits research to the Home Office on the operation of the concessions to the one-year immigration rule since they were announced in summer 1999. |
| Written and oral evidence is given to the United Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery in Geneva. |
| SBS publishes Forced Marriage: an abuse of human rights to mark the first anniversary of the Home Office Working Group Report, A Choice by Right to assess government progress. It makes a number of recommendations for future action. |
| Kiranjit Ahluwalia wins the Asian Woman of Courage award and SBS is given a Lifetime's Achievement Award organized by Media Moguls. |
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2002 |
| SBS is involved in AWAAZ, a loose network of individuals and organisations, formed in the wake of the Gujarat genocide of Muslims, to oppose religious fundamentalism in the UK and Indian Sub-continent |
| SBS sought a judicial review of a coroner's decision not to hold an inquest and not to recognise SBS as an interested third party after the collapse of a criminal trial against the husband of Nazia Bi who was burnt to death with her child. This was the first time a voluntary organisation challenged a Coroner's Court in a domestic violence case. Although the High Court refused leave for judicial review, SBS continues to campaign on issues raised in the case. |
| SBS successfully helped a young Asian woman secure the first annulment of marriage in England and Wales in a forced marriage case. |
| Hannana Siddiqui wins the Women of the Year Award from GG2 - Garavi Gujarat newspaper. |
| Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes announces further reforms to the domestic violence concession of the One Year Rule and incorporates it into the Immigration Rules following consultation with SBS. |
| SBS holds a historic series of regional consultation meetings with black and minority women and women's groups to start a national initiative on violence against black and minority women. |
| SBS holds a vigil and a public meeting to highlight the issues of race, child abuse and State accountability following the death of Victoria Climbié. The event was jointly organised with the Family Foundation Group in support of the Victoria Climbié Family Campaign and acted as a memorial to Victoria. It was also the first meeting to examine the role of Ealing Council in Victoria's case. |
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2003 |
| Hannana Siddiqui nominated by the Government's Women and Equality Unit for the Asian Women's Achievement Award. |
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