The VIEW Magazine CiC
Presents
Rebel Justice Podcasts : Episode 6: Interview with Farah Nazeer, THE CEO of Women's Aid
Our sixth Rebel Justice podcast features Farah Nazeer the CEO of Women's Aid and our own Narince Erkan, a law student and president of our University Rebell Justice Societies. They take a deep dive into services for women trapped in the criminal justice system who have been victims of abuse and let down by the agencies meant to support them. Our women.
Having experience in working with human rights in Europe, and also international development in the Global South, Farah Nazeer talks to us about her vision for Women’s Aid, its perspective, goals, and the crucial services they provide.
54% of women have been victims of abuse prior to entering custody, important questions need to be asked, about how EVAWG organisations or agencies are failing our women.
Working with specialist providers as well as community services, Women’s Aid works with and represents a number of organisations to address issues such as domestic abuse, minoritised women, disabled women and more.
Women's Aid is well known for providing services such as chat forums, emails and direct services for survivors. Their No Women Turned Away Project provides a direct service to help women who have faced barriers accessing refuge. Women's Aid also provides policy and advocacy, campaigning, for funding policy and frameworks.
A more holistic approach is recommended when working with women in the justice system. 50% of women say they have been victims of domestic abuse as adults and as children according to the Ministry of Justice's own statistics. This begs the question why women are finding themselves in CJS in the first place, and a service driven response needs to be implemented.
Otherwise without early intervention, what do women end up turning to, and what circumstance do they find themselves in if they have no support?
After prison, to end the cycle of abuse, we need specialist services, a pathway to multifaceted and a holistic approach. Economic support, support for families and children must be in place to provide safe space, and to support and strengthen their mental health. Women with complex needs Need specialist services as not all services can meet needs for women with multiple or greater needs.
The No Women Turned Away project supports women with barriers to accessing refuge, due to criminal convictions, in particular, Women's Aid encourages women to be referred to refuge accommodation through this project.
Future plans for Women’s Aid includes continuing campaigning for a Statutory Defence, where an offence is driven by abuse which was unfortunately neglected.
They will also protest against the 500 new prison places for women, this money can be better used to fund community services for women instead, or mental health or other preventative measures.
Women’s Aid aims to change the context and cultural awareness around domestic abuse and what was broadly acceptable to make it completely intolerable.
Nothing will change unless we have a shared understanding, a shift in society's approach to domestic abuse, until every single survivor gets the service she needs.
Every single pinch point that a survivor might encounter, must be absolutely geared towards and able to identify abuse and respond to it.
For more unmissable content from The View sign up here
The VIEW Magazine CiC
Presents
Rebel Justice Podcasts : Episode 6: Interview with Farah Nazeer, THE CEO of Women's Aid
Our sixth Rebel Justice podcast features Farah Nazeer the CEO of Women's Aid and our own Narince Erkan, a law student and president of our University Rebell Justice Societies. They take a deep dive into services for women trapped in the criminal justice system who have been victims of abuse and let down by the agencies meant to support them. Our women.
Having experience in working with human rights in Europe, and also international development in the Global South, Farah Nazeer talks to us about her vision for Women’s Aid, its perspective, goals, and the crucial services they provide.
54% of women have been victims of abuse prior to entering custody, important questions need to be asked, about how EVAWG organisations or agencies are failing our women.
Working with specialist providers as well as community services, Women’s Aid works with and represents a number of organisations to address issues such as domestic abuse, minoritised women, disabled women and more.
Women's Aid is well known for providing services such as chat forums, emails and direct services for survivors. Their No Women Turned Away Project provides a direct service to help women who have faced barriers accessing refuge. Women's Aid also provides policy and advocacy, campaigning, for funding policy and frameworks.
A more holistic approach is recommended when working with women in the justice system. 50% of women say they have been victims of domestic abuse as adults and as children according to the Ministry of Justice's own statistics. This begs the question why women are finding themselves in CJS in the first place, and a service driven response needs to be implemented.
Otherwise without early intervention, what do women end up turning to, and what circumstance do they find themselves in if they have no support?
After prison, to end the cycle of abuse, we need specialist services, a pathway to multifaceted and a holistic approach. Economic support, support for families and children must be in place to provide safe space, and to support and strengthen their mental health. Women with complex needs Need specialist services as not all services can meet needs for women with multiple or greater needs.
The No Women Turned Away project supports women with barriers to accessing refuge, due to criminal convictions, in particular, Women's Aid encourages women to be referred to refuge accommodation through this project.
Future plans for Women’s Aid includes continuing campaigning for a Statutory Defence, where an offence is driven by abuse which was unfortunately neglected.
They will also protest against the 500 new prison places for women, this money can be better used to fund community services for women instead, or mental health or other preventative measures.
Women’s Aid aims to change the context and cultural awareness around domestic abuse and what was broadly acceptable to make it completely intolerable.
Nothing will change unless we have a shared understanding, a shift in society's approach to domestic abuse, until every single survivor gets the service she needs.
Every single pinch point that a survivor might encounter, must be absolutely geared towards and able to identify abuse and respond to it.
For more unmissable content from The View sign up here
Welcome to the sixth podcast in our series, Someone's Daughter by Rebel Justice for the View Magazine. I'm Madelina Alberto, your host for this podcast. Narin Han, the president of our Rebel Justice societies, spoke with foreigners ear, the CEO of Women's Aid. More and more intersectional feminists are shifting their focus to include women who have been victims of crime and subsequently let down by the agencies and organizations meant to help them. For too long, these women have been excluded from the feminist dialogue and battle for equal rights. So it's interesting to see how organizations like Women's Aid are taking a fresh and more inclusive approach. When we consider, according to Lord Farmer's Report that 57% of women have been victims of abuse prior to entering custody. There are important questions we need to ask to address the way that the agencies and organizations are failing these women, our women.
Speaker 2:Okay. So firstly, can you present yourself and tell us what Women's Aid is and what do they do? A little bit about them and you?
Speaker 3:Sure, sure. Absolutely. So Women's Aid is, um, essentially the Women's Aid Federation of England, and we are the representative organization of domestic abuse services across England. We represent and have, our members are, if you like, 170, um, service providers, refuges. Um, some are very big and have multiple refuges. Some are smaller and have one or two. Um, we represent specialist providers, so spec sort of by and for providers. So for black and minority has women, disabled women and so on. We also represent, especially as women's services, but uh, generic women's services. So there are a range of different services. They're all quite different, do different things. So that gives us quite a broad view of the landscape of service provision for domestic abuse across the country. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. So we act as a sort of representative worldy. Um, we also, um, provide direct services to survivor of domestic abuse, and there's experiencing domestic abuse through our live chat service. We have a survivors for, um, we provide email support to survivors. We do a range of, of things to support survivors, um, who get in touch with us directly. We have a No Women Turned Away project. We a direct service for survivors where we help survivors who have, have barriers when it comes to accessing refuge, to, to access and find a place for, for the replace of safety for them. Um, and then we do a range of other things. So a lot of policy and advocacy and campaigning work to ensure that the landscape for domestic abuse is improved. So funding and, um, and policy and frameworks that governments and local authorities use. We also have a, a body of, um, a research and evaluation that happens within the organization. And then we also do some procurement type work. So, for example, we run a rail refuge scheme, which means that those organizations and those charities, if you like, that are working on, um, providing refuge to women can access free rail tickets for those women and their children to access refuge should they not have enough funds to, to find and to access a case. So refuge, we do a range of, um, a range of things.
Speaker 2:That's great. Thank you for that. Yeah, That's very, very interesting. Good work you're
Speaker 3:Doing. Might also be worth just being aware that we are, um, 47 years old. So we were founded 47 years ago, and it's quite an interesting story the way that we were, we were founded essentially, um, women who recognized what they, what was called battered women at the time. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, um, opened up their homes to, to those women and, uh, started up the first refuges, which eventually became Women's A. So, um, it's a very organic story. Um, very much an organization led by women and driven by women for women. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:<affirmative>. Yeah. And what is kind of your background? How do you commit to this, um, your kind of contribution? I mean, obviously, you know, with Women's Aid, but about you as well.
Speaker 3:Sure. Absolutely. So I joined Women's Aid, uh, about months ago, but as its chief Executive Officer, prior to that I've broadly worked on women's rights. My, my entire career. I started off working on, um, women's human rights in, in RO communities in central and Eastern Europe prior to those countries joining the eu. Um, and then I went for the Religion Institute, um, for many years on a range of women's rights issues. Everything from non-custodial sentences due to trafficking, um, chemicals that women were more exposed to. So pensions, women's pensions, all sorts of things to do with women's rights quite large. Um, and then I international development where I've been working mainly on, on women's rights in the, um, local south. So working on things like fgm, um, access to school rape as a weapon of war. So a whole range of, um, of issues to do with Borg violence against women and girls, um, in, in other contexts of than the uk. Um, particularly in humanitarian setting, test settings, for example, where, where child marriage is an issue. So lots of very similar issues, um, all in the UK and lots of read across to domestic abuse. But, um, as I said, in in in March, I joined Women's Aid.
Speaker 2:Okay. And were you, were you brought in, do you think, as a result of, you know, the, the scandals that the women women's aid have been involved in in the last couple of years now we've seen in the news, et cetera? Do you have anything to say about that?<laugh>
Speaker 3:<laugh>? Um, I'm, I'm really hoping I was brought in because of my skillset and my, um, my passion for, for the women's rights and ending board primarily. Um, I am really, um, concerned and I have a passion for a range of issues including civic space, women's environmental rights, anti-racism, and a range of issues which I've championed throughout my career. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. So, um, I obviously bring her knowledge and the understanding of tackling them through those issues through organizations and ensuring organizational effectiveness against those issues.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Um, so you obviously mentioned all the work that Women's Aid does, especially on domestic violence and abuse, and the view does a lot of, you know, trying to campaign towards domestic abuse and victims who are in the criminal justice system, and many women in the criminal justice system actually are victims of trauma and domestic abuse like this. So how do you think we can apply a more holistic approach to these individuals? Or do you think we should approach them more holistically or, you know,
Speaker 3:Ab Absolutely. I think we, we absolutely need to approach women in these contexts more, more holistically. Um, when you think about the, the fig, you know, 57% of women in, in prison reports, according to Ministry of Justice Report, be having been domestic, uh, victims of, of domestic abuses adults, um, or as children and women in prison, the charity, Women in prison report that 79% of women who use their services have experienced domestic violence and, and or sexual abuse. So I think that tells the story of why women are off finding themselves in the criminal justice system in the first place, and what needs to be done much earlier by way of intervention and what intervention can be made to ensure they find themselves in the, in the criminal justice system. So I think there is a more, more service provision driven response that needs to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you exactly. I, I completely agree. And you mentioned some intervention techniques and stuff. How can we make sure that these women, like you said, don't go to prison in the first place? Because most of them, it's usually very much linked to the, their history of abuse and trauma that they go through. How can we create a more tangible change, um, through legislation, through campaigning to make sure that they don't, this, that is obviously linked to stopping and, you know, decreasing domestic abuse in the first place, But what kind of intervention methods, um, would you think should be applied to especially women in the criminal justice system?
Speaker 3:Sure. Um, I think it's, it's multifaceted. I think it starts off with, with identifying and supporting women when they are experiencing abuse in the first place. So it's, it's, I think a big part of it, which is prevention. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Um, but so, you know, ensuring that women have access to specialist support services, uh, and women's refuges and safe space so that they can find ways out of abusive relationships and abusive context, then they have, they have a place to recover and recuperate and rebuild their lives. So I think that's, that's really, that's a key part of this in terms of ensuring those specialist services as women's refuges are, are funded and are available. And when you think that something like 57% of, um, referrals to women's refuges are rejected every year going to lack of space place, um, that, that tells a story in and of itself in what, what happens to those women, um, where, where do they go and what do they end up returning to and what do they, what's its circumstances do they lastly find themselves in if they cannot access safe space? So women's refuge is really critical and central to this. Then there's a sort of here, if you like. So, so ensuring that, that themselves are able to understand and recognize domestic abuse and coercive control, um, and, and are able to support women through, through that process and refer them to services much earlier than they currently do, because right now you, you have to be pretty high risk. The police think that you are about to, uh, be merge essentially before you, um, which of course, you know, is way too late at that point. So I think there's something about that early intervention when it comes to police, also health services, GP, surgeries, all kinds of, all kinds of touchpoints that a woman might encounter. Um, schools need to be really aware of, of domestic abuse and, and flag it early to authorities who then need to be prepared and able to deal with it. Um, I think, I think the underlying issue though is perhaps domestic abuse isn't taken seriously enough. Perhaps it's just tolerated in our society, and then it leads these kinds of consequences. So I think there's a whole range of interventions that need to be prioritized and then invested in mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Um, and, and as part of that, attitudes have to shift and the look at, at these women as of domestic abuse first and foremost, rather than, than criminals in the criminal justice system.
Speaker 2:Um, I mean, we talked a lot about prevention and, um, intervention before. And I can also wanna touch on after prison, especially since our focus is women in the criminal justice system and, um, what happens after they leave, because how can we improve potentially services that they're given afterwards so that they don't fall back into this cycle of abuse. That's a very hard thing to break when they're left, you know, penniless and hopeless and no one would employ them, et cetera, et cetera. How do we make sure that women after prison are independent enough that they do not go back to, you know, their abusers, et cetera?
Speaker 3:I think, I think it's that yeah, absolutely critical. Absolutely critical. And I think it's, it's the same set of services. It's the same types of services, services that are specialists and, and able to support survivors who are in prison. Those on community orders, those who just, um, left prison that they need access. They need a pathway to specialist support that is multifaceted istic. Um, but that support absolutely has to cover off specialist refuge space, uh, economic support, health support, um, and, and so on, depending on their circumstances, the support with children, child care and whatever, what it was support with, with negotiating their family circumstances. So all of that needs to be taken into account, an holistic package put around them that is trauma-informed needs, strengths based, so that women, so we can, we can sort of make the best and, and make the most of those women's strengths, um, and support them to reap their life and recognize the, the critical intervention of mental health support to enable that long term healing. And I empowerment mm-hmm.<affirmative>. So I think these are things that, that need to be wrapped around them when she leaves prison, if in general actually, but, but particularly she's, um, identified or, or disclose domestic abuse. And I think, I think there's also the, the issue of funding of specialist refuges. Um, not all res have the, the specialisms who support women, um, who often have multiple needs, but greater needs who have come from prison mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And unless local authorities and natural government are able to, to fund and you prioritize funding those, those, those particular services, you'll just find this cycle perpetuating. And I think the idea that, that these women are as criminals rather than they women who have most, like keeping being coerced. You know, there are all kinds of examples from, from women committing offenses to support partners drug use, like shoplifting or protecting their, their, their partner from, from taking responsibility for crime to protect their partner for prosecution. You know, there are all kinds of examples, you know, or, or male partners of domestic abuse, using criminal justice system as an additional need to exerting power against them, women being trafficked or, or women having, um, funds withheld from them. So their economic situation is so bad whether or not they're working that, that, that they feel forced into committing criminal activity to survive in some way, or their mental health needs not being met because they're in, they're in a abusive relationships. So I think that there are lots of different factors that drive women into the criminal justice system, and these factors can come back when they are released from prison or when they're, or even what they're in prison. So it is about wrapping that, that holistic service set of services around them. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:<affirmative>, um, yes, I agree. Again, I mean, I also kinda wanna ask about how have women's aid specifically recognized that the, this prevalence of women in the criminal justice system who have endured domestic abuse, Do you offer anything else? Sex specialist approaches, et cetera? I mean, we talk a lot about these stuff, but is there anything special that you guys offer as women's aid to these women who are in prison or leave prison or, you know, are convicted, et cetera?
Speaker 3:Sure. Absolutely. Um, so we, we run a no women turned away project, and that supports women who face barriers to accessing refuge due to criminal convictions and, and other, and other reasons. But criminal conviction is part of this, this project. And of all the women that we've supported with those additional barriers to accessing refuge, 8% of them had an offending history mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Um, so we have, we, we encourage, um, our members and indeed all providers to refer women to our project, um, when, when they feel that they have those additional barriers so we can work with the women and with the services to find them the right place to, to support them. So that's a key part of our offering. We feel very strongly that no women should ever be turned away from refuge. This is exactly what this project is, is set up to do.
Speaker 2:Just kind of breaking away, but also not from that. Um, I was just gonna ask you kind of what your views on in sending these women to prison in the first place. Sure,
Speaker 3:Sure. Um, I don't know if it's helpful at all, but I just in terms of some of, go back to the other things that we are really keen to, um, want these services to be used more. We want support more women who have an offending history, um, or who've just been released who are currently in prison to access these services. And many of our, our member services provide specialty support specifically for women involved in the criminal justice system. So for example, um, I dunno if you've heard that, Advances, um, maneuver wraparound service, and that's, that's a particular service which provides, um, support to women and girls. I think it's age 15 or over, who have those multiple and complex needs who have committed a crime at risk of re-offending. Um, and we, but we have many members that do this and, and prioritize this. And indeed when we ran the, um, national time, we had a particular element of that typically for women in prison to make it a free phone number. So we, we, we are trying to, um, ensure that we provide our services and tailor our services to women who've been caught up in the criminal justice system.
Speaker 2:I mean, my next question was about, you know, how can women's aid be more inclusive and create change for these women in the criminal, criminal justice team? I think you kind of answered that, but you know, to make it even more inclusive, would you have any specific aims or, you know, to make it even more approachable and make your services known to perhaps women in prison or out of prison because maybe they're not aware, et cetera, Kind of your plans on that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no ab absolutely. So I think maybe just taking it from the top up, sort of from the sort of national framework of legislative framework, something that we will continue to campaign on is for a statutory defense where offending is driven by abuse. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. So that was rejected in the domestic abuse bill, unfortunately, and we did alongside the sense Women's Justice and Prison Reform trust on amendment. And it was, it was rejected unfortunately. But it is something that we will continue to work on because we very much see that that needs, we very much believe that that needs to be absolutely taken into account where a defense is offending, driven by domestic abuse. Carry on campaigning on that. The other, the other piece that we're very keen to get across again, nationally is to protest and defend against the idea of 500 new prison places for women. Mm-hmm.<affirmative>, because those funds are far better invested in services for women mm-hmm.<affirmative> either for when they're out of prison to stop them entering the criminal justice system in the first place. That, that just sort of perpetuates the current system, rather the examining and changing the current system. Yeah. So I think, I think we'll absolutely be calling for changes to the system itself because that's, that's sort of where it starts, if you like, when it comes to our own services, we do share them and advertise them to all of the referral points that we feel the women would touch. And perhaps there's more, you know, perhaps there is more that we could do, but we currently do share it with all of organizations that are involved. But I really encourage if there are any organizations that feel that are not in partnership with us on, on this particularly, even though women who turned away project absolutely approach us and would be really happy to work with anybody on sharing any services because the idea is to absolutely financially get them to
Speaker 2:Survivors. Yeah. And just to end on a more broad, maybe just general question for you is, you know, what are your visions for women's aid in the future? What would you like to achieve with the organization?
Speaker 3:Sure. Absolutely. I think currently domestic abuse is, everyone knows about it, but it, it's kind of broadly acceptable in our society. I think what we need to do is move from making it acceptable to making it utterly unacceptable. And what I'm really, so I guess my absolute vision is for women say, to change the context and cultural aware around domestic abuse and make what was broadly acceptable, completely intolerable. That's sort of my first ambition because I don't think anything else will really font until we have a shared upstanding. I don't think enough will follow the survivors until society itself ship its approach, domestic abuse. And I'm absolutely passionate about ensuring that every single survivor gets the services that she needs and that those are fully funded as simple. So that, that's like the second piece. And then I guess the third piece for me is that every single touchpoint that a survivor might encounter is absolutely geared and able to identify abuse and respond to it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Lovely. Thank you so much for that. That was very, very
Speaker 4:Interesting.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, Naja Orhan and far in a year for this insightful and important discussion. If you've been affected by the issues discussed in this podcast, please reach out. You are not alone. You can contact any of the helpline numbers below. Thanks to our brilliant team, Holly MCee, producer and editor, and to you for listening. Stay tuned for next week's episode on the Irish Justice System and how it treats women with Yvonne Batik, a senator in the Irish Senate and Fara dji, one of the founders of the View. Until next time.