Keeping Faith in Justice with Sahdaish Pall (Sikh Women's Aid)

Keeping Faith: A How To Guide

Content Warning – This episode contains descriptions of Gender-Based Violence, including Harassment, Femicide and Domestic, Sexual, Spiritual and Financial Abuse. Please listen with care.

What does it look like to shine a light on violence against women and girls (VAWG) when others are trying to sweep it under the rug? Why do harmful narratives stay so entrenched across communities and traditions when our scriptures preach egalitarianism? How do we keep faith in meaningful justice when the institutions designed to protect women and girls all too often let us down?

In this episode, we speak to Sahdaish Pall (BEM), Co-Founder and CEO of Sikh Women’s Aid – an organisation founded by and for Sikh and Punjabi women to support victims of domestic & sexual abuse in the UK. This confronting conversation spans Sahdaish’s journey through the VAWG sector, the importance of specialist services and the backlash she’s faced in tackling taboo topics.

You can read Sikh Women’s Aid’s reports and surveys here or listen to their podcast, The Phulkaari, on YouTube, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow Sikh Women’s Aid on Instagram, Facebook and X/Twitter to keep up with their vital work.

The Faiths Against Domestic Abuse Campaign was founded in 2020 by Tara Corry from Women’s Interfaith Network and Jeeves Rohilla, formerly of Faiths Forum for London, and is now run as an independent project.

If you need support or are affected by the issues discussed in this episode, please reach out to Sikh Women's Aid, the organisations below, or call the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247. Please note that WIN is not a frontline organisation.

• Jewish Women's Aid
• Karma Nirvana
• Muslim Women’s Advisory Council
• Women's Aid
• Galop
• Southall Black Sisters

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide is part of Women’s Interfaith Network's 2024 Keeping Faith Programme. Read more about the programme here and be the first to hear about upcoming events and ways to get involved by signing up to our newsletter. Views expressed on this podcast are the speaker’s own and may not reflect the views of Women’s Interfaith Network.

Hosted by Maeve Carlin

Produced by Maeve Carlin and Adam Brichto

Edited by Adam Brichto

Executive Produced by Lady Gilda Levy

Theme music composed by Jamie Payne

Logo and Artwork designed by Jasey Finesilver

Support from Tara Corry