Jasvinder Sanghera, (born

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

, England September 1965) is a British author, campaigner against forced marriages and abuse.

Biography

Her memoir ''Shame'' was a Times Top 10 Bestseller and described in the House of Lords as a "political weapon". She is widely recognised for publicising the problem of forced marriage. The then Prime Minister,

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

, said her work "turned my head on the issue of forced marriage". Her work is recognised as a key contributory factor to the creation of a specific UK forced-marriage criminal offence in 2014. Sanghera is an expert witness in courts in child, civil and criminal proceedings. She is the Independent Chair of the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership and chair of Domestic Homicide Reviews . She is a member of the Safeguarding Panel for the Church of England and has won numerous awards including the “Woman of the Year 2007”. She was granted an honorary doctorate by the

University of Derby , mottoeng = Experience is the best teacher , established = 1851 – Teacher Training College1992 – gained university status , type = Public , chancellor = William Cavendish, Ear ...

in 2008. She was awarded The Pride of Britain Award in 2009 and was named Cosmopolitan Ultimate Woman of the Year in 2010. In 2011, she was listed in the Guardian’s top 100 Most Inspirational Women in the World and in 2012 received the Global Punjabi Award. She was awarded

Commander of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in 2013 in recognition of her outstanding contribution for the victims of forced marriage and honour-based abuse and in 2014 was awarded Legal Campaigner of the Year. Sanghera is also listed as an entry in the 2016 edition of the book ''Who’s Who'' and in the same year received the International Woman Award for human rights from the Italian media. In 2018 she was awarded Honorary Doctor of Law by

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...

, Leicester and Woman of the Year by Leeds City Council and in 2019 she was awarded the

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

Humanitarian of the Year Award and also the Sikh Woman of Substance Award.

Publications

# ''Shame '' (25 January 2007) # ''Daughters of Shame '' (6 August 2009) # ''Shame Travels'' (2011)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanghera, Jasvinder 1965 births Living people Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English people of Indian descent British activists British women activists English memoirists British Sikhs