The MPSA was approached by Dr. Aisha Gill of Roehampton University, who was planning to produce a study entitled,“An Investigation into Forced Marriage & Honour-based Violence in the Sikh Community”, in the UK and Punjab.

The proposed study will address Honour Based Violence (HBV) and Honour Killings (HK) in Sikh communities primarily in theUK. However, it will also draw on research from the Punjab in addressing this problem from a trans-national perspective. Designed principally as a community engagement and policy analys is study, intended to promote action, the project will draw on insights derived from cross-national studies and from an action and participatory research perspective.

The research will feed into Governmental policy on HBV in the UK, as well as in Punjab. The MPSA will submit the study to the HBV Working Group, to which it is a member.

Aims of the Project:

1. To conduct a community engagement project to scopethe nature and extent of HBV and HK in the Punjab and the UK Sikh Diaspora.
   
   
2. To evaluate the impact of these practises on women’s experience in Sikh communities.
   
   
3. To investigate how HBV in the Sikh communities is understood. This would include both attention to cultural and family traditions and to the representations that appear in the media of Sikh ideas and values in relation to gender relations and family honour.
   
   
4. To compare the emergence, definition and development of HBV in the Punjab and the UK, and to provide data to support interventions in both countries.
   
   
5. To build on the data using action-orientated approaches.
   
   
6. Further, to use the research evidence to develop new broader conceptualisations of HBV in Sikh communities. Such theorisations will be expected to begin to address the present poverty of theoretical and empirical work on the topic of HK’s.

The overall goals of the study will be to identify gaps in knowledge and policy in relation to HBV, both in Sikh communities and more widely. Thus, overall, the project will result in:

a) proposals for community engagement and action,

b) policy recommendations, and

c) theoretical insights.