{"id":42211,"date":"2024-02-16T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?p=42211"},"modified":"2024-02-14T09:49:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T09:49:27","slug":"our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/","title":{"rendered":"Our right to justice: an interview with Zlakha Ahmed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I came to Rotherham 37 years ago.<\/strong> I met many young women experiencing domestic violence and was frustrated that there were no adequate services. I\u2019d heard about a women\u2019s cooperative in India working on ending domestic violence and thought if women in India, of my heritage, can do it, I can do something here in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1994, I won funding to set up Apna Haq<\/a><\/strong> (\u2018our right\u2019 in Urdu), an anti-racist organisation supporting black and minoritised women facing violence in Rotherham. Myself and two other women, one Indian and one Chinese, set up a steering committee. We quickly realised black and minoritised women didn\u2019t have the same rights. Numerous women had no recourse to public funds and no domestic violence concession was in place. We held banner-making workshops with local women and rallies outside the Home Office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 60 women, aged 16 to 60, came to our first conference.<\/strong> When we asked them, \u2018Is domestic violence an issue?\u2019 they said, \u2018Of course \u2013 what are you doing about it?\u2019 We held a conference every year where women talked about the support they received. Having gained an understanding of the trauma women can be put through by sharing their stories, we wouldn\u2019t get public testimonies from survivors now. At the time we wanted to give women confidence that there is an alternative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve grown as an organisation as Rotherham\u2019s communities have changed. <\/strong>When I first came to Rotherham, 95 per cent of the people we saw were Pakistani. Now there are 30 or 40 nationalities, including refugees and people from EU communities. Active women from different communities often become part of Apna Haq\u2019s management committee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotherham is tiny. <\/strong>If a woman has family looking for them, we advise them to move. Sheffield is larger and it would be difficult to track you down. There is an LGBTQ forum in Rotherham (though the majority of them are white), where we signpost LGBTQ young women for specialist support \u2013 often it\u2019s not safe to come out in Rotherham. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black and minoritised women\u2019s organisations have lost their funding. <\/strong>Often only generic refuges are available. A woman will go and there\u2019s nobody that speaks their language, the refuge will ring us and we will have to translate. Organisations like ourselves have more to do to try and keep women safe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-five years ago people weren\u2019t used to seeing somebody visibly Muslim in these spaces<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work involves challenging stereotypes.<\/strong> Many times when I\u2019ve been invited to speak, people\u2019s jaws have dropped when I walk in. Twenty-five years ago people weren\u2019t used to seeing somebody visibly Muslim in these spaces. In 2016, we held the first national conference on feminism, spirituality and activism, challenging the white feminist notion that any woman that covers is oppressed. We need feminisms, not just feminism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Rotherham 12 case<\/a><\/strong> [when a group of Pakistani men were charged with violent disorder for defending themselves against far-right racists], Apna Haq stood by the men in our community against Islamophobia. I had elderly men stop me in the street to thank me. Our main focus will always be supporting women and children and keeping them safe. But where we come across racism, we will use our power and influence as an organisation to stand by people so that they get justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zlakha Ahmed was speaking to Ananya Wilson-Bhattacharya<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article first appeared in Issue #242,\u00a0Fighting fascism<\/em>. Subscribe<\/a> today to get your copy and support independent socialist media.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The founder of Apna Haq reflects on nearly 30 years of activism and advocacy for women facing domestic violence in Rotherham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":42449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2587,89,199,244,2302],"tags":[2829],"class_list":["post-42211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authoritarianism-far-right","category-feminism","category-lgbtqplus","category-race-racism","category-the-spark","tag-zlakha-ahmed"],"yoast_head":"\nOur right to justice: an interview with Zlakha Ahmed - Red Pepper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The founder of Apna Haq reflects on nearly 30 years of activism and advocacy for women facing domestic violence in Rotherham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our right to justice: an interview with Zlakha Ahmed - Red Pepper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The founder of Apna Haq reflects on nearly 30 years of activism and advocacy for women facing domestic violence in Rotherham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Pepper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-16T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Zlakha-Ahmed-cropped-resized.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"615\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ananya Bhattacharya\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ananya Bhattacharya\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ananya Bhattacharya\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/9b30b93270cd1aeeee6e3c5f7665d47c\"},\"headline\":\"Our right to justice: an interview with Zlakha Ahmed\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-16T08:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/\"},\"wordCount\":588,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Zlakha-Ahmed-cropped-resized.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Zlakha Ahmed\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Authoritarianism and the Far Right\",\"Feminism\",\"LGBTQ+\",\"Race and racism\",\"The Spark\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/\",\"name\":\"Our right to justice: an interview with Zlakha Ahmed - Red Pepper\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Zlakha-Ahmed-cropped-resized.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-16T08:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/9b30b93270cd1aeeee6e3c5f7665d47c\"},\"description\":\"The founder of Apna Haq reflects on nearly 30 years of activism and advocacy for women facing domestic violence in Rotherham\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Zlakha-Ahmed-cropped-resized.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Zlakha-Ahmed-cropped-resized.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":615,\"caption\":\"Image courtesy of Zlakha Ahmed\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Spark\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Our right to justice: an interview with Zlakha Ahmed\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/\",\"name\":\"Red Pepper\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/9b30b93270cd1aeeee6e3c5f7665d47c\",\"name\":\"Ananya Bhattacharya\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Our right to justice: an interview with Zlakha Ahmed - Red Pepper","description":"The founder of Apna Haq reflects on nearly 30 years of activism and advocacy for women facing domestic violence in Rotherham","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Our right to justice: an interview with Zlakha Ahmed - Red Pepper","og_description":"The founder of Apna Haq reflects on nearly 30 years of activism and advocacy for women facing domestic violence in Rotherham","og_url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/","og_site_name":"Red Pepper","article_published_time":"2024-02-16T08:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":615,"url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Zlakha-Ahmed-cropped-resized.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ananya Bhattacharya","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ananya Bhattacharya","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/"},"author":{"name":"Ananya Bhattacharya","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/9b30b93270cd1aeeee6e3c5f7665d47c"},"headline":"Our right to justice: an interview with Zlakha Ahmed","datePublished":"2024-02-16T08:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/"},"wordCount":588,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Zlakha-Ahmed-cropped-resized.jpg","keywords":["Zlakha Ahmed"],"articleSection":["Authoritarianism and the Far Right","Feminism","LGBTQ+","Race and racism","The Spark"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/","url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/","name":"Our right to justice: an interview with Zlakha Ahmed - Red Pepper","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Zlakha-Ahmed-cropped-resized.jpg","datePublished":"2024-02-16T08:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/9b30b93270cd1aeeee6e3c5f7665d47c"},"description":"The founder of Apna Haq reflects on nearly 30 years of activism and advocacy for women facing domestic violence in Rotherham","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Zlakha-Ahmed-cropped-resized.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Zlakha-Ahmed-cropped-resized.jpg","width":1200,"height":615,"caption":"Image courtesy of Zlakha Ahmed"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/our-right-to-justice-an-interview-with-zlakha-ahmed\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Spark","item":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/the-spark\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Our right to justice: an interview with Zlakha Ahmed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/","name":"Red Pepper","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/9b30b93270cd1aeeee6e3c5f7665d47c","name":"Ananya Bhattacharya"}]}},"type_of_article":[{"ID":35505,"post_title":"Column","post_content":"","post_excerpt":"","post_author":"50","post_date":"2023-09-15 13:19:17","post_date_gmt":"2023-09-15 12:19:17","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"column","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2023-09-15 13:19:17","post_modified_gmt":"2023-09-15 12:19:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?post_type=type_of_article&p=35505","menu_order":0,"post_type":"type_of_article","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","comments":false,"id":35505}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42211"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42456,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42211\/revisions\/42456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}