‘Grooming of British Pakistani girls’ – appearance on BBC Radio4 Today
Last week a seminal report by the Muslim Women’s Network, MWN, examining sexual exploitation and grooming of young Asian and Muslim, women was launched. This report is heartbreaking and shocking to read. It destroys the myth that only “white girls” are sexually exploited by Muslim or Pakistani men.
The report itself received much media attention and I was very glad to be asked to talk about my experiences of working with young girls who have been sexually exploited, coerced and abused, to BBC Radio4’s flagship the Today programme. You can listen to the whole piece here:
https://audioboo.fm/boos/1592564-grooming-of-british-pakistani-girls#t=3m30s
There is much work to be done in addressing the issue of sexual exploitation at a national and local level. However this report makes a first and brave step in deconstructing the racialised narrative that has surrounded the issue to date. This stigmatising narrative only serves to silence victims even more and is a barrier to addressing this phenomenon fully.
Akeela Ahmed MBE 