Combatting coercive control in Covid-19: Perspectives from British Pakistani NGO workers in East London

这项拟议的研究将是一项关于强制控制的法律保护的民族志研究，强制控制是英国最普遍的家庭暴力形式，也是2015年《严重犯罪法》规定的刑事犯罪。通过关注在伦敦东部家庭暴力非政府组织工作的女性的经历，这项研究将产生关于强迫和控制如何在竞争激烈的家庭环境中展开的视角。这个项目建立在叙述和讲故事的政治(Cruikshank 1992；Jackson 2004；DAS 2007)以及传记破坏和重返社会(2007年日)的学术基础上，以调查a)与新冠肺炎有关的强迫包围和b)根据2015年《重罪法案》将强迫控制定为刑事犯罪的现实生活。非英语移民妇女诉诸司法受到结构性不平等的阻碍，例如缺乏经济手段、缺乏关于支助服务的知识和国家当局要求的英语和官僚语言的语言技能(Merry 2006；Fassin 2013；Fuchs 2020)。通过密切关注他们的言行和沉默(DAS 2007)，这项研究考察了充当国家和社区中间人的非政府组织工作人员的私密生活(Webb 2012)，在获得权利的同时把握“荣誉”和“羞耻”的概念，跨越公共和私人之间的界限(Day和Goddard 2010)，并对综合传记的规范要求提出异议(Day 2007)。它问：这项法律对处于胁迫和控制情况下的妇女的日常生活有何影响？通过言语和沉默交流家庭暴力经历的方式有哪些？这揭示了试图用自己的语言理解痛苦所涉及的风险(Jackson，2004)或言语中暴力的可能性(Das，2007)？那么，非政府组织工作人员如何驾驭干预家庭暴力情况的道德呢？人类学家研究了人们如何通过a)解决他人的苦难，b)认识到自己所在群体的苦难，以及c)在类似情况下与他人对话(Day and Goddard 2010；Webb 2012)，从而逐渐将自己理解为伦理或政治方面的人。该项目旨在通过在伦敦东部沃尔瑟姆森林和雷德布里奇地区的非政府组织提供乌尔都语支持的妇女的观点，在这些文献的基础上再接再厉。南亚经验最近才被纳入关于家庭暴力的社会科学研究(Ahmed等人，2004年；Dasgupta，2007年；Kallovayalil，2010年)，很少有研究考察其核心的不平等现象(Puwar和Raghuram，2003年；Gill和Brah，2014年；Bi2020)。这项研究从基层激进主义和关键种族理论(Du Bois 1935；Lorde 1979；Taylor 2016；Vitale 2017)中的废奴主义方法中获得灵感，强调a)恢复性司法和b)资源从监狱工业综合体重新分配到受家庭暴力影响的妇女和儿童的福利的必要性。通过参与者观察、生活史访谈和话语分析，本研究将探索这些妇女如何在同时担任非政府组织工作人员、亲属、邻居和活动家的同时，与法律程序有关，抵制或复制等级制度，并设想解决方案。这个项目反对西方女权主义者对妇女机构的分析，即通过简单地集中人们不受从属的愿望来赋予妇女机构标准地位，该项目建立在对穆斯林妇女世界的人类学研究的基础上，这些世界展示了妇女在家庭、公共和政治环境中创造和操纵自己命运的多种方式(Mahmod 2004；Abu Lughod 2015；Elliot 2021)。

This proposed research will be an ethnographic study of legal protections around coercive control, the most prevalent form of domestic violence in the UK and a criminal offence under the Serious Crime Act 2015. By focusing on the experiences of women working at domestic abuse NGOs in East London, this research will generate perspectives on how coercion and control unfold in multiply contested domestic settings. This project builds on scholarship on the politics of narration and storytelling (Cruikshank 1992; Jackson 2004; Das 2007), as well as biographical disruptions and reintegration (Day 2007) to investigate the lived realities of coercion and control in the context of a) Covid-19 related forced enclosure and b) the criminalisation of coercive control under the Serious Crimes Act 2015. Access to justice for non-English speaking migrant women is obstructed by structural inequalities such as lack of economic means, knowledge about support services, and language skills, both English and bureaucratic language required by state authorities (Merry 2006; Fassin 2013; Fuchs 2020). Through close attention to their words, actions, and silences (Das 2007), this research examines the intimate lives of NGO workers who act as brokers between the state and community (Webb 2012), navigate access to rights alongside notions of 'honour' and shame, traverse boundaries between public and private (Day and Goddard 2010), and contest normative demands on integrated biographies (Day 2007). It asks: how does this law affect the day-to-day lives of women in situations of coercion and control? What are the ways in which experiences of domestic abuse are communicated through words and silences? What does this reveal about the risks involved with trying to understand suffering in one's own terms (Jackson 2004) or the potential for violence in spoken words (Das 2007)? How do NGO workers then navigate the ethics of intervening in situations of domestic abuse? Anthropologists have examined the ways in which people come to understand themselves as ethical or political by a) addressing the suffering of others, b) recognising the suffering of their own groups, and c) in dialogue with others in similar situations (Day and Goddard 2010; Webb 2012). This projects aims to build on this literature by generating perspectives from women providing Urdu language support at NGOs in the East London boroughs of Waltham Forest and Redbridge. South Asian experiences have only recently been included in social science research on domestic abuse (Ahmed et al 2004; Dasgupta 2007; Kallovayalil 2010) with few studies examining inequalities that lie at its core (Puwar and Raghuram 2003; Gill and Brah 2014; Bi 2020). This research takes inspiration from abolitionist approaches in grassroots activism and critical race theory (Du Bois 1935; Lorde 1979; Taylor 2016; Vitale 2017) that emphasise the need for a) restorative justice and b) resource re-allocation away from the prison industrial complex to welfare for women and children affected by domestic violence.Through participant observation, life history interviews, and discourse analysis, this research will explore how in their simultaneous roles as NGO workers, relatives, neighbours, and activists, these women relate to legal processes, resist or reproduce hierarchies, and envisage solutions. Arguing against western feminist analyses of women's agency that accord it a normative status by simplistically centring desires to be free from subordination, this project builds on anthropological scholarship on Muslim women's worlds that demonstrate the multiple ways in which women create and steer their destinies in home, public and political settings (Mahmood 2004; Abu Lughod 2015; Elliot 2021).