‘The fear is real’: how Midlands attacks have changed Sikh women’s daily lives | UK news

Sikh women in the Midlands have told how a series of religiously motivated attacks has caused fear in their community and forced some to “change everything” about their daily routines.

Two Sikh women, both in their 20s, were reportedly raped in Walsall and Oldbury in recent weeks. John Ashby, 32, has been charged with religiously aggravated rape in connection with the alleged Walsall attack.

These incidents, as well as a violent attack on two elderly Sikh taxi drivers in Wolverhampton, led to a parliamentary hearing at the end of October on anti-Sikh hate crimes in the area.

Sukhvinder Kaur, president of the Sikh Women’s Aid Society, a domestic violence charity in the West Midlands, said women were changing their daily routines to protect themselves.

“The fear is real, that your daily life has now completely changed. I haven’t seen that before,” he said. “For the first time since I founded Sikh Women’s Aid, women are saying to us: ‘We no longer do the things we enjoy because we might get hurt doing them.’”

She said women are no longer “comfortable” going to the gym, walking or jogging. “They do this in groups, sharing their location with a friend or family member.

“An attack in Walsall will cause women in Coventry to be scared because that’s the Midlands,” he said. “There’s definitely been a shift in the way women think about their own safety.”

Earlier this week, police confirmed that a woman in her 50s was the victim of a racist attack in Wolverhampton in which an electric shock device was used. Labor MP Preet Kaur Gill wrote in X that the victim was Sikh. When approached, West Midlands police refused to confirm this information.

Sikh places of worship in the Midlands have begun distributing rape and security alarms to women in a bid to keep them safe.

Kam Kaur, a regular attender at Nanaksar gurdwara in Walsall, said the events “changed everything” for Sikhs living in the area.

He said he did not feel safe, especially when going to the gurdwara alone, and told his elderly mother to be careful when opening the front door. “We are all targets,” said Kaur, 55. “Anyone can be attacked day or night.”

Another participant, 32-year-old Inderjeet Kaur, said she took extra precautions when going to work. “I’m trying to find parking closer to the bus terminal,” he said. “I put path [prayer] “It’s on my headphones, but the volume is very low, so that I can still hear the cars passing me, I can still hear the people around me.”

Surinder Kaur, 57, who has three daughters, said: “The girls and I are going for a walk and I feel very unsafe at the moment because of all the crime.

“We never thought about taking these measures before,” he said. “I’m constantly looking over my shoulder.”

For Surinder Bajwa, 55, who grew up in Walsall, the atmosphere is reminiscent of the racism older generations faced in the 1970s and 80s.

“We experienced all this in the 1980s when our mothers were passing by the community building,” he said. “We used to have the National Front and all the people were sitting there and they were spitting at them or calling them names or setting dogs on them. For some reason I keep coming back to that. In my mind I almost think back to those times.”

Labor councilor Simran Cheema echoed this, saying people felt “we’ve gone back in time…where there’s a lot of overt racism”.

“People are afraid to go out on the streets,” he said. “People are afraid to wear the turbans and headscarves that are part of their religion.”

Cheema said Walsall council had provided extra security cameras around gurdwaras to reassure the community.

West Midlands police said they were holding meetings with local politicians, women’s groups and community leaders and visiting faith institutions to discuss women’s safety.

“It’s been a very difficult week for the community,” Chief Supt Phil Dolby told the Walsall gurdwaras committee on Sunday. “No one deserves to live in a community feeling afraid.”

Walsall council said it was “actively working with the police, along with the Sikh community and our communities, to provide support and reassurance”.

Sandwell council leader Kerrie Carmichael said: “We are all shocked by the horrific incident in Oldbury.” He added that the council was working with police under the Safer Sandwell Partnership to tackle violence and hate crime against women and girls.