I, along many others, was taken by surprise when the murder of three girls by a 17 year old child (we don’t know anything of his story) in Southport triggered riots across our nation. How are we to respond? Agreeing with Baroness Warsi, I tweeted that first we need to respond to the immediate law and order situation and second we need to address the long term and underlying issues. The first we can leave to generally respected law and order system and services. The challenge for us all lies as to the second. What are the underlying issues that we need to attend to, in order to rebuild our multicultural communities. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury has posed the same question about the way forward; how “to dismantle these divisive and violent forces and instead pursue a path towards peace?” I agree with him that we need to “encourage religious literacy in education and in government, to equip people to live in a faith-filled world.” This was also a recommendation of the report of the Butler-Sloss Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life, in their report ‘Living with Difference’ report, whose focus was community, diversity and the common good. 

Not long ago I was part of the Bishop of Birmingham’s Peace and Reconciliation group, for which I produced a paper. Referring to several past world ethnic conflicts, in the conclusion I asked: 

What will it take to start a war in our diverse communities? What could be the trigger? We need to be ready for such a time with large numbers of mediators, bridge-builders, peacemakers and reconcilers, sentinels…

I have to admit that the last thing on my mind when writing those words was what is facing our nation now. I did speak about the pre-conditions of conflict but I was not thinking that the preconditions that have been developing over the past decade would suddenly blow up with the murder of three innocent girls at the hands of a child who is suffering from who-knows-what as a trigger.

The Archbishop reminds us of the Bible’s teaching on living well together by loving our neighbour especially one who is different from us. There is much damage done to our community relations. I’m reminded of the Church’s own Near Neighbours programme. We desperately need to improve our neighbourliness across our multicultural and multi religious communities. Organisations such as The Feast should be brought centre stage, with experience of ‘dialogue with difference’. Then there is the Church’s Difference course. Can that be rolled out across our nation; not just churches but other faiths and non-religious spaces! There is much the Racial Justice Unit can do here, especially in partnership with the National Estates Churches Network.

The Archbishop drew attention to the importance of providing for the needs of our deprived and disadvantaged communities- good housing, health and education. This brought to mind the Social Exclusion Unit that had been established by Labour the last time it was in power. Could such a unit serve our nation in the current situation! Another easy win would be for the Government to bring back Community Cohesion that was deprioritised by the Conservative Government.

Many of the rioters were not just objecting to the new immigrants but any immigrants over several generations; no one has explained to me how far back they want to go. I was born in another country but I have been in England 54 years. That is longer than some of the rioters have lived. Is that long enough for me to justifiably call this country my home!

We are currently in the middle of the South Asian Heritage Month. I was invited to write a blog for it. I decided to write it under the title ‘We are here because you were there’. Do the many who left home with their children, families and communities to go and riot appreciate understand how our small island become the diverse community that it is? Do they know the much that we share in common, including our history? We have shed blood together in the world wars. One of my great uncles was in the Burma Campaign on the same side as the rest of Brits. Surely that counts for something!

As an educator over many decades it has particularly upset me to see young people taking part in the riots. When I was involved in my work ‘championing’ the white working class, especially in their education needs, I remember quoting the Ajegbo Report in its comment that not enough multicultural education work had been done with white children. Teachers returning from their summer holidays have got their work cut. Preparing young people for our multicultural society and world is more important than ever before. Race and multicultural literacy will need space in the curriculum. Resources are being gathered for this, by groups such as the excellent BAMEed Network. Funding and time for training will need to be made available; not just school teachers but also youth workers, college staff and adult educators. 

In his book The Colonizer and the Colonized Albert Memmi book, explores how a bad act committed by a non-white person often comes to represent the whole community, while an act committed by a white person reflects only that individual. This is certainly true when it comes to Muslims in our society. For a healthy multicultural and multifaith society it is important for us to demonstrate consideration for our neighbour who is different from us. To do so it is essential to understand those who are different from us. Embarking on such a journey requires us to begin with an open mind. While revisiting the works of Tariq Modood (Not easy being British and Still not easy being British) I encountered Robin Richardson spelling out the hallmarks of open-mindedness:

1. Readiness to change one’s views, both of others and of oneself, in the light of new facts and evidence 
2. Not deliberately distorting, or recklessly over-simplifying, incontestable facts
3. Not caricaturing the views of people with whom one disagrees 
4. Not over-generalising 
5. Not using double standards when comparing and contrasting others with oneself
6. Seeing difference and disagreement as a resource for understanding more about oneself, not as a threat
7. Seeking to understand other people’s views and standpoints in their own terms and recognising where they are coming from – the narratives and stories with which they interpret events 
8. Not claiming greater certainty than is warranted 
9. Seeking consensus or at least a modus vivendi which keeps channels of communication open and permits all to maintain dignity 

Some of this brought to mind the work of the Birmingham-based project The Feast whose guiding principles included the following:

• Listen to what everyone has to say
• Do not tell others what they believe, but let them tell you
• Do not treat someone as a spokesperson for their faith or culture

The Christian Muslim Forum also provides ethical guidelines for interaction between our different communities.

Multicultural understanding

During my 54 years in the UK there is much that I have learnt about who I am, where I have come from as well as something (not enough) about those who are different from me. Starting with the Asian Studies Course in the late 1970s I continue to take (and create) opportunities for multicultural understanding amongst our diverse communities. My recent focus in this respect has been on learning, and encouraging others to learn, about our Muslim neighbours.

There continue to be some useful resources to aid one’s learning about Muslims. I was able to add to my collection the book Being Muslim Today by  Saqib Iqbal Qureshi. It has a very telling sub-title: reclaiming the faith from orthodoxy and Islamophobia. The book opens with a question from the author’s 15 year old son: “Papa, is Islām really more violent than other religions?” Qureshi explains how his son is teased by his fellow students, who mock his Muslim identity and insinuate that is a terrorist.

He pushed back against the taunting, but deep down he wasn’t entirely sure. Was his religion really one of violence? It was clear by the expression on his face that Mustafa didn’t have a solid, grounded answer. And no wonder. So much of what we’re bombarded with links Muslims to violence.

The author wonders: “Where was my son—or any curious Muslim—supposed to find clear answers about what the Islāmic take on violence was—or gender or any number of issues?” He makes clear that “being Muslim in the West is incredibly tough.” He explains how the ordinary Muslims live their lives surrounded by opposing camps:

In one corner, you have a sizable chunk of the non-Muslim Western “intelligentsia,” who feed off misrepresenting Muslims—highlighting every act of violence committed by a Muslim anywhere in the world and linking it to Islām. They are uninterested in any other Muslim story that runs counter to their “Muslim is violent” narrative.

Then there is what he describes as the “Muslim establishment itself”. This is where, according to the author one finds orthodox leadership who demand unthinking adherence to a religious framework that raises more questions than the orthodoxy will admit to.

Unfortunately, it’s under this umbrella that most Muslims reside, meekly accepting that their role is unthinking adherence to whatever the imams, sort of clerics, tell them, lest they be accused of waging war against God—which can then translate into punishments all the way to murder.

According to the author there are a tiny minority in the Muslim community who he describes as …

the orthodoxy’s violent half-cousins, the lunatic fringe, the textbook antisocial personality disorder exemplars, who seem obsessed with making Islām live up to its reputation of cartoon villainy in the West. This is a group assembled for a brawl, not a theological debate. In fact, study after study has demonstrated that while identifying with Islām, this group is typically illiterate about it. It takes the many legitimate complaints that Muslims have and twists that righteous anger into something horrible.

Islām is never out of the news, and it’s rarely allowed to be a positive story. The battle among bigoted influencers, the hundreds of millions of Islamophobes, obstinate orthodoxy, and the lunatic fringe has crept steadily into our society to a point where it overwhelms Muslims in Europe, North America, and beyond in our interconnected world.

According to Qureshi, the community has failed to equip younger Muslims with resources to explore questions that arise for them about Islam and which are either dismissed or answered less than honestly—with explanations that are culturally acceptable but wholly inaccurate.

I agree with the author that it is important to understand and have a truthful conversation about Islam and Muslims, instead of one informed by generalisations and stereotypes. For this we need resources that are accurate and written by insiders of the Muslim community. This book, therefore, should go someway in helping Muslims to answer some of the questions that arise about their faith. Equally, it should provide a resource for the wider community who desire to understand their Muslim neighbour and their beliefs.

I was recently invited to give a talk on the 100+ years of South Asian presence in the UK. This helped me to learn even more about the community, my community, who have made this country their home. Around the same time I recall a fellow Kashmiri saying goodbye to his home (in Kashmir) which had been visiting and was now about to return to his other home (Luton in this case). This gave rise to a discussion about ‘where are we from?’ and whether we should write our stories. 

Two sets of stories that have already been written are included here. These have helped me to get to know a little more my fellow Brits, in their own words. First up is Attock to Attock Park, ably facilitated and curated by Nabeela Ahmed. It’s a collection of stories told by the residents of Bradford Moor who reside near Attock Park. The stories cover a range of themes that include first encounters with England (for the older generation) or Pakistan or Kashmir (for the younger generations). Helpfully, the collection includes traditions that centre on death and funeral, a subject I happen to be running a workshop on in the near future so to raise awareness amongst fellow Brits who are outside the Pakistani community but who wish to be in a better position to support their Pakistani neighbours in times of sadness and loss. Other themes included in the book are: traditions around Ramzaan, Eid, food, weddings, in their villages and towns in Pakistan and Kashmir and here in Bradford Moor. They talk about racism and share humour and poetry. The participants met each week, discussed a new theme each time. 

The second set of stories are contained in the excellent book Old Wives’ Tales. Put together by Mashkura Begum and Aftab Rahman, it pays tribute to the challenges endured and sacrifices made by Bangladeshi women who have made their home in the UK. With their resilience they have laid solid foundations for their community upon which much has already been built upon. The book is sadly out of print but you can get a glimpse through this video. Like Sofina Islam, who wrote the Foreword, after reading the book I felt as if the women are my own family members. I include here just one of the stories, which typifies the grit and determination of the women included:

Kusheda Khatun is described as a women of steel. Her life was one big tragedy. She never saw her mother as she passed away when Kusheda was a baby. Her father passed away when she was young. Her mum’s sister raised her. She lost her brother.  She got married at age 12, to a husband who was already married. He was the son of her aunt who had brought her up. Upon getting married, for 30 years she lived in Bangladesh while her husband was in England. Her first child died age 6 months. She had a son who died after 28 days.

Such was her resilience that her story ends in these words: I am happy. Although I have had many ups and downs and have seen many deaths I remain grateful to God for everything he has given me.   

Background

In 2013 I published the book Dear Birmingham which drew attention to the exclusion of Pakistanis from opportunities and centres of power across Birmingham. Since then, further research has been conducted which has shown continued exclusion of the community. The focus here is on Birmingham City Council and the health services in the city.

Pakistani-Birmingham

According to the Census 2021, 17% of the Birmingham’s population are Pakistani. Two-thirds pf this community are from Azad Kashmir, the remainder are Pashtun, Punjabis and other ‘Pakistanis’.

Drawing on Birmingham City Council 2011 data, 24% of the school children were Pakistani. This percentage will have increased since then. According to local health data, Pakistanis had the largest number of pregnancies which provides a clear indicator of population. 

Birmingham Pregnancies

• Pakistani                      517
• British (White?)         515
• Black African              91
• White other                91
• Asian other                  77
• Indian                          73
• Bangladeshi               69
• Middle Eastern          37

Pakistani health

British Pakistanis are generally a disadvantaged community.

According to the Birmingham Pakistani Health Profile,

• life expectancy of Pakistani women 84.8
• life expectancy of Pakistani men is 82.3
• Pakistanis consistently had the highest rate of infant mortality of all Asian subcategories.
• Pakistani women are the least active of all ethnicities, men not much better.
• Pakistani men, almost three times as likely as the general population to have type 2 diabetes
• Pakistani women five times more likely to be diabetic when compared with the women in the general population
• Pakistani children, ages 10-11, have higher prevalence of obesity; also children 4-5 years of age with the same problem
• 49.9% of Pakistani mothers were in consanguineous relationships.

Birmingham City Council Employment

According to the Birmingham Stephen Lawrence Commission Report (2001) the Council had previously set and achieved a 20% target for employing ethnic minorities. The Council then decided to set differentiated targets, in proportion to the population. For their Pakistani workforce the Annual Improvement Target (2001/2002) was 6.9%. I have monitored the progress of this target over the years through Freedom of Information, as follows:

Birmingham City Council Pakistani workforce over the years

2000                2%

2012                3.85%

2018                4.8%

2020                5.19%

2023                6.99% (the 2001/2002 target). This is against the Pakistani presence in the population of 17%.

Pakistanis in the health system

Through Freedom of Information, I have collected the following picture of Pakistanis as registered patients, in the health workforce and on health boards.

Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust

• Pakistani patients                    20.71%
• Pakistanis on boards               5.43%

Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

• Pakistani patients                    14.22%
• Pakistanis in the workforce  6.41%
• Pakistanis on the board          8%

• Positive Action

The Trust has no strategy targeted at any singular ethnicity in its workforce, including the Board. But the Trust is committed to a representative workforce with inclusive leadership. To support this, we have various work streams to increase the representation of BME staff at Band 8a above. This includes Band 8a assurance framework, positive action for underrepresented groups, and equality statement on Trust job adverts. In addition, the Possibilities Beyond Limits programme is in place to support BME colleagues to progress. This work is focused on BME staff and not one sole ethnic group. We provide inclusive leadership training to all senior managers on Band 6 and above, in addition to cultural competence training.

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust

Pakistanis in the workforce                5.2% 

Pakistanis on the board                        7% 

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

Pakistani patients                    7.6%

Pakistanis in the workforce    5.49%

Pakistanis on the board                       There are NIL Pakistani board members.

Please note that there are 2 board members without an ethnic origin recorded on the Trust ESR system (workforce system) and therefore we are unable to confirm if they of Pakistani ethnic origin.

NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board.

• Pakistanis in the workforce                6.3%
• Pakistanis on the board                      0%

• Positive Action is covered in our Equality Strategy (slide 26), and EDI Policy.

The ICB do not specifically target action at individual ethnic origin categories, such as Asian Pakistani but take a wider view where there is under-representation of minority ethnic groups at a particular pay band.

The ICB is working towards the NHS requirements, set out in the Workforce Race Equality Standard Model Employer paper, published in January 2019, this sets out an ambition to increase black and minority ethnic representation at all levels of workforce by 2028.

Our positive action work covers all levels of the organisation.

Key Question

What difference does it make when a community such as the Pakistanis is underrepresented in the workforce and in the decision-making structures? How does it impact on the services that are provided or the appropriateness of such services? What message is being sent to the Pakistani community? (you are not welcome here; you have nothing to contribute; we will decide for you!).

Suggested recommendations

Suggested recommendations

1. 17% target Pakistanis in the workforce – pipeline strategy
2. 17% target Pakistanis on the Boards and all decision-making structures
3. Decision making structures to include multilingual strategies such as interpreters (in Mirpuri/Pahari, Pashto), especially for women.
4. A Pakistani health practitioners’ group (sub-groups such as Kashmiri, Pashtun) to feed intelligence and expertise into the system.
5. Pakistani sub-groups on health (e.g. Kashmiri, Pashtun) in order to understand the needs and provide a culturally competent health service.
6. A BLACHIR type approach to Pakistani community, in partnership with authorities such as Bradford whose ‘Born in Bradford’ study offers a model for work on consanguinity which was flagged up as a Birmingham problem.
7. A health profile to be produced for the largest of the Pakistani communities, the Kashmiri community.

Birmingham City Council should take urgent action to rectify the unacceptable imbalance between the Pakistani population and Pakistani origin employees in the Council.

Professor Muhammad Anwar, Birmingham Pakistan Forum report 20-21 April 1996.

It was in 1983 that we went to Paris, for our honeymoon. It was 13 years since I had arrived in England from Kashmir, speaking only a little English, now nearly a graduate with a Bachelor of Education. 

Unlike me, the woman I had married had gone to a grammar school and had learnt some French. So, other than saying ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’ during our time there I was able to hide behind her whenever it came time to communicate with the locals. 

During that visit we both fell in love with France and would return there for holidays every few years. Each time we went I felt embarrassed, almost ashamed, for my inability to speak French. 

Then about 20 years ago I took the radical step to eventually start to learn the language, with the help of a teacher friend. Every week I would have a half hour  lesson with him. Then, in between the lessons, I would get on with my normal life, in its English-speaking environment and forget any French words and phrases I had learnt. 

Then it suddenly dawned on me; here I was learning a new language and failing while at the same time I continued to forget the language(s) I did know once ie Urdu and Pahari. 

I then remembered the advice of a teacher when I first arrived in England. She had said: if you want to improve your English then read, read, read as much as you can. I thought to myself: if that works for English then it must work for any language. 

I decided to subscribe to the Urdu weekly paper, The Nation. In the 7 days before the next one arrived I used to read all of it – news of the politics in Pakistan and Kashmir, social matters in the UK, adverts including for marriage and anything and everything else that was there. In the early days I struggled but then I began to notice the improvement. Interestingly as I read Urdu it began to improve my spoken Pahari. 

After cancelling my newspaper subscription, I have continued to read regularly, a forever increasing list of well-written Urdu books and articles that have content that is of interest. Whereas before I would read and re-read old favourites; Kashmir udaas hai by Mahmood Hashmi, Shahaab Nama, book on the achievements of Muhammad Ajeeb by Yaqub Nizami and numerous Manto books. 

Then, thanks to a Facebook friend, I recently discovered a book by Syed Shabbir Ahmad: Observations and Impressions. What an excellent story teller; with a Manto-esque style of writing as well his selection of material. The detail he provides and the emotions he captures leaves one with the stories and their characters for days to come as if one had personally been there. 

My reading journey of his work began with Radio Bachpan. Here we learn about the arrival of the radio, in 1965, from his Vilayati (Blighty, England return) uncle. 

I remember the family would gather at teatime and listen to the covered in cloth radio given pride of place on the table. We children used to wonder how it was that a human being had gotten inside the machine to then talk and sing to us. 

We would go to school and brag about our prized possession. Upon return from school I would run straight to my uncles to enjoy this innovative piece of equipment. A few years later when my father bought our own radio I remember family members cautioned him that it might interfere with our education. 

It was very helpful to see included in the book a chapter on Mahmood Hashmi; a timely opportunity to have confirmed my existing knowledge (as well acquire some new detail) on him before I write a chapter on this man known as the Father of Urdu journalism in the UK. 

In the story where he promises his mother not to cry, my particular interest focused on sections that provide an insight into the daily routine of women and families. Recently I happened to have read Gupta’s ‘Embers the Beginning and Embers the End of Mirpur’ which described the horrors of Partition. So I welcomed the feel-good story of Muslims coming to the aid of Hindus. 

The writer also draws on his work as a taxi driver in a number of places. A few years ago I wanted to set up a project to gather Taxi Tales. It never came to fruition. I would encourage him to maybe write that book in order to share with us the world and insights of people in this trade which has working within it as many as 25 percent British Pakistani workers. 

There is ‘People who love are in the West too’. As someone who has only lived in the West, I can only agree. 

Although I have had knowledge of the British education for over 50 years (as a pupil, teacher, teacher trainer, schools adviser, parent, governor) it was nevertheless enjoyable reading this ‘outsider’ perspective in the chapter devoted to our education system. 

Last but not least, is the chapter: A girl is born. This took me back to my early days in Kashmir and then in England. Being the only son in a family of 6 and later an uncle to 4 girls, I learnt the appalling treatment of girls in our families. I am always keen to promote gender equality whenever I get a chance. We see the writer also challenging the ways of our community. He has written a couple of stories about daughters. In one he gives out mathaaee sweets. A colleague enquires what the occasion is to which he responds: birth of a daughter. The enquiry continues: the first? “No, the second” he says, leaving his colleague confused as such practice usually only happens at the birth of a son. Later, in the same story, when he said goodbye to his daughter at the hostel so she could attend medical college, it brought back tearful moments when we left our first-born at her university. In another story we learn about another’s daughter being allowed to marry the man of her choice. I could only wish her well and say to her parents: good on you to allow her to do so. 

I strongly urge you to read this gem of a book. 

PS

I am sad I never mastered French. Occasionally we have talked about going to France on an extended holiday and immersing ourselves in their language. Dreams do become reality. One day!

I was born in Kashmir, in the 1950s. There were very few education opportunities there. There was one primary school, serving a population of a few thousand children. It was about a half hour walk away. It had one teacher. There were two items of furniture: the teacher’s chair and a blackboard. We sat on the dusty floor, writing on wooden boards known as takhtis. Each class had a Monitor, to act as a Teacher’s Assistant. I was one such pupil, almost from day one. I loved learning and often came top in the exams.

After five years there I moved to the secondary school, over an hour’s walk away. This had a few more teachers and a wider curriculum. This included languages other than Urdu. For the first time I encountered Arabic, Farsi and English. After two years here my parents decided to send me to England, to live with my older sister and her husband. They had concluded that I would have more opportunities in my new home. How right they were. All my achievements (there are numerous) over the 50 years that have followed came about because of that decision and their sacrifice, to part with their 12-year-old son.

In England, I attended a local Secondary Modern. This served a mainly white working-class community which was in the early stages of becoming multicultural. Many of the local children had jobs lined up where their dads and mums worked so they thought they did not need qualifications. This was true in those days, but not for long. The Kashmiri and other minority children had a similar attitude to qualifications. I was an exception.

After three years at the school, at 16, with a couple of good CSEs, I left to get a job and stand on my own two feet. I was glad the school leaving age had been raised. The extra year made all the difference for me. That was in 1974.

Three years ago (2017), I completed my PhD, from Warwick University. Through this I have earned the right to use the title ‘Dr’. As well as publishing my thesis in book form I have begun to encourage others to take similar qualifications. The following is an example of this; a comment from a Pakistani contact who I am mentoring as he moves nearer to doing his own PhD:

I am deeply inspired by you. In your work you have focused on issues that are important to me. Our last conversation, about me doing a PhD, was an illustration of you giving your time to up and coming people. I admire who you are and your writing. Seeing someone like you, with the experiences you’ve had and your writing . . . inspires me. I can see myself as someone who can do the same because you’ve done it. Thank you so much.

So, what is the story in between these stages of my life?

With the help of the school’s careers officer I managed to get a job as an Admin. Trainee at a local factory. What sold this job to me was the promise of a day-release, to continue my education. This was the start of my relationship with the world of further education. Between this and my second employer, where I worked as a Youth Work Trainee, amounted to six years of post-16 study. I now had the required O and A-levels to gain entry to higher education, for my first degree. I would not have reached this point without the transformative power of FE, for which I shall be eternally grateful. Here, it is worth mentioning the mature student’s grant I was able to access. Without this, there would have been no higher education.

The next phase of my life, relevant here, was my thirteen years as a middle manager at a post-16 community college. Alongside my role as a DeputyDirector of Equal Rights and Opportunities Management Unit, I was attracted to working in the department that provided qualifications for mature students who had left school with few or no qualifications. Utilising my own experience, I designed an Access to HE course in Youth Studies. The students were from disadvantaged backgrounds; ethnic minorities, white, single parents, those who disliked school or who the school disliked. But now all of them had a deep desire for learning and self-improvement. What they needed was another chance. FE, particularly this college, whose aim was to serve the needs of deprived communities, came to their rescue. Naturally, I saw myself in my students’ life trajectories.

Then the college merged with another and the new institution had no place for me. So I took voluntary redundancy. I soon discovered that this was nothing new in our world, even though it seemed tragic personally. So, the key question I asked myself was: what was I capable of doing? It seemed quite a lot by this time, thanks to my experience and education, which by this time included a master’s degree. Instead of becoming unemployed, I became self-employed. I set up a consultancy, with its own website, and began to get work, some fairly prestigious.

Soon after, I undertook a project, to research and champion the educational needs of white disadvantaged young people. With the help of the local MP, the findings were taken to Parliament. At such moments I invariably and proudly remembered my young self who had left school with hardly any qualifications. It was also a reminder of what difference (second chance) education can make. Later, I was to make a case for a joined-up approach to the education of the young people who underachieved at school and who needed a ‘cradle to grave’ educational strategy.:

We need to enable our early years practitioners, school staff, colleges, universities and a range of other community organisations and individuals to work together for a single goal in addressing their needs. Their work will not happen without the systemic change, and the associated resourcing.

Following the above research, I did my PhD, where my focus has been the educational underachievement of British Pakistani boys, in Birmingham (2018). This has shown that over 1,000 young people from this community leave school each year without the benchmark qualifications.

Possible response

So, reflecting on my own life’s personal and professional journey, what should our further education provision look like? In short, this should be lifelong, cradle to grave. All stages and types of education – early years, schools, adult education, universities, formal and informal – should be joined-up and be accountable to their communities, whose needs the provision should be focused on. There should always be Positive Action, that is, greatest investment for those with the greatest need. Everyone should have a learning account, with a deposit of money from the government, to be used whenever, bearing in mind not everyone is able to gain access to university nor is such provision suitable for or wanted by all. There should be a duty placed on employers to provide ongoing learning opportunities for their employees.

I have experienced two redundancies. On both occasions I was able to pick myself up and not just survive but thrive. The end of job-for-life is even more a likely reality for the future generations. Melissa Benn (2018) reminds us: ‘In order to get ahead or even just to survive, tomorrow’s workers will have to be entrepreneurial, good communicators, globally aware, thrive in solo work . . . and skilled in teams’. She also quoted Theresa May, promising when she took office in July 2016 in these words: ‘We will do everything we can to help anybody, whatever your background, to go as far as your talents will take you.’ If such promises were made good, in relation to lifelong learning, the future of our nation could indeed be bright.

This blog was first published in Post-16 Educator

References

Benn, M. (2018) Life Lessons – the Case for a National Education Service. London: Verso.

Iqbal, K. (2018) British Pakistani Boys, Education and the Role of Religion – in the Land of the Trojan Horse. London: Routledge.

By Tanveer Zaman Khan (translated from Urdu by Dr Karamat Iqbal)

In the Pakistani society women are treated as a symptom of all that is bad. Even worse, men are seen as inherently good and whose corruption is blamed on women. Women are the temptress who use their obscene bodies to lead the innocent man astray. In fairy tales and myths and legends women are presented as witches and ghosts; to be avoided. This creates a most horrendous picture and perception of women in the nation’s mindset.

All this in a society where men control absolutely everything. Within the home fathers, brothers and husbands, in their own way and with their supposedly God-given powers do as they wish; to control women, to abuse them and destroy their lives through such evil cultural practices as :

• Wani – a custom found in parts of Pakistan where girls, often minors, are given in marriage or servitude to an aggrieved family as compensation to end disputes. Vani is a form of arranged or forced child marriage, and the result of punishment decided by a council of tribal elders.
• Karo kari – a practice of honour killing. The country has the highest number of documented and estimated honour killings per capita of any country in the world. such a killing is murder of a member of a family by other members, due to the belief the victim has brought dishonour upon the family or community. The death of the victim is viewed as a way to restore the reputation and honour of the family.

When the woman leaves the home she knows she is entering space that does not belong to her. Men will treat her as if she is a wild animal who has escaped the jungle. She will be raped by their looks alone, creating absolute terror for her. If a man takes a fancy to her and she rejects his advances then he may resort to throwing acid on her; a case of ‘if I cannot have you no one can’. If a woman ever looks likely to gain the upper hand in a dispute with a man then he has the whole social, legal, political and religious system on his side, to ensure that his masculinity is not marred even the slightest.

If the rest of the system is not enough then the Urdu language will step in with its rich vocabulary that can be used by men and the general society to put the woman in her lowest possible place. Labels such as: insolent, audacious, shameless, impudent, impertinent, wicked, freedom-loving, pleasure-seeker, vagabond and, if all else fails to categorise and castigate women then there is always ‘westernised’, a catch-all label that defines everything that is undesirable and objectionable.

When women demonstrate against their oppression, such as through the Aurat March (Women’s March) they are subjected to propaganda from the media and especially from the government and religious lobby:

• They are Western agents, being funded by the West
• They want too much freedom
• They are all lesbians
• They dress inappropriately and unacceptably
• The educated (too much education!) women are leading other women astray

From the moment they are born, women are unwelcome and seen as a burden. The birth of the first girl maybe tolerated but the arrival of second or third girl in a family will likely lead to visits by relatives to commiserate with her unfortunate parents.

Some argue for more laws. In reality it’s not a need for more laws it is fair and serious implementation of existing laws, to protect women as free and equal human beings. Above all what is needed is change of a toxic anti-woman culture where men flaunt multiple wives, something that is supported by religious leaders as a good thing. Men have created the culture for their own benefit, according to rules that suit them and where they have a free-for-all in oppression of women.

Whether she is killed, raped, sexually assaulted, attacked when she leaves home… it is the woman who is to blame. She is blamed whether she wishes to work, to be educated, to leave home or indeed demands any rights as a human being. According to the county’s justice system a woman is expected to put up abuse from men. It is a laughing matter that if a woman wishes to bring a case of rape or other assault or abuse against a man she will need witnesses.

Across the Pakistani society abuse of women (and children) has skyrocketed to heights never known before. Nowhere is safe for women. Even women parliamentarians are abused and assaulted by their male colleagues, which makes it known for the women that they are in a male space which does not welcome them.

The whole system – from the lowest clerk to the highest office – is of the view that women are to be blamed for their rape and murder. Even the Prime Minister Imran Khan has blamed rape of women on their inappropriate dress. His comments have shaped the national discourse. This led the activist and writer Noor Zaheer (author of ‘My God is Woman’ and ‘Denied by Allah’) to point out that inappropriate dress accusation does not explain abuse of women. According to her, what the Prime Minister said has been said for generations, where victims are blamed for their abuse. So, the accusatory finger begins to point towards the victim and away from the perpetrator. Such sexist attitudes are designed to limit the lives of women. In any case what he said is nonsense when one is to look at appropriately dressed women who are abused, such as those on the Hajj pilgrimage.

The recent murder of Noor Mukadam in Pakistan is a sad illustration of the problem of women in Pakistan. Described by The Guardian newspaper as ‘gender terrorism epidemic’, it involved the 27-year-old woman allegedly tortured and beheaded by the son of a business tycoon. “In a country where so-called “honour” killings are common practice, the brutality of the killing has forced Pakistan to confront its poor record on gender-based violence.” The newspaper also reminded us that in the World Economic Forum’s global gender index, the country is ranked 153 out of 156 countries, just above its Taliban-ravaged neighbour Afghanistan. What is appalling in the situation is not that she was murdered, which it is, but that the media and large sections of Pakistan society have blamed the victim, for just being who she was and where she was i.e., in her murderer’s house as if being there was an invitation to be deprived of her life.

Pakistan is a sick society where all systems and structures and institutional policies and practices are anti-women. It is an unsafe environment for women; from cradle to grave (yes, even after death they are not safe). So, what is it that women demand?

Demands of Pakistani women

Compared to what women can take for granted in many countries and cultures, the demands of Pakistani women are quite simple and basic. Central to their demands is equality with men, in the home and outside; freedom of movement (including to access male spaces); freedom of choice in matters such as relationships and life generally (My body, My choice); freedom to travel; freedom to drive a car or cycle/motorbike; equal access to work and opportunities; equal pay; freedom from abuse and harassment; safety and dignity in the workplace and wider society. In other words, women demand equality with men, in the home and outside. They demand all the rights that are taken-for-granted in the wider civilised global community, and which are their human rights within the United Nations charters.

Introduction

The book in my view had an unfair advantage. Given its subject matter – the unique, pioneering, role model for many (beyond his own community) – the writers could not go wrong. Mohammed Ajeeb CBE; a true leader.

The book helps us to learn about the person (according to those who have known him) whose life’s journey has been one of ambition, endeavour, courage, perseverance, self-discipline and unflinching resolve. They have also described him as articulate, forthright and engaging. As a researcher into the Pakistani Kashmiri community, you can guess my joy at being provided another excellent reference book, which has already been referenced in my next book on education. So, my heartfelt gratitude to Ishtiaq Ahmed, Yaqub Nizami, Zaffar Tanveer and Dr Sufyan Abid Dogra for producing the excellent book:  Muhammad Ajeeb CBE – Rising Above Ordinariness.

Early migration

The book takes us on a journey into the story of multicultural development in British society. It also offers us a glimpse of the internal workings of the Pakistani community. We learn about people living in crowded accommodation and making do with very limited food choice:

We lived in a four-bedroom house with 18 other males…. For the first two years we could not purchase any halal meat and therefore we had to make do with eggs, tins of beans, processed peas, cauliflower and potatoes and not much else. p14

The ‘push’ factor of migration.

The village, Chattro, in Mirpur Azad Kashmir, had little promise for his future life. His father, a hard-working sole bread earner, a mason by profession, could only afford the high school education that was locally available for him. Had he remained living there…he would have ended up in menial clerical jobs… Therefore, he decided to leave his birthplace and move to Karachi, which in those days was a good place (for work and part time education). p56

We learn about the efforts of the earlier migrants from our community who had little, who travelled far and who achieved much despite hostilities of racism and poverty. I wonder whether the subsequent generations, especially the current youth, could follow suit in accessing the opportunities that the world offers.

All communities

We learn that there was greater integration of the Pakistani community in the earlier days of migration. The men in the community were more willing to interact with the majority white community, at workplace, neighbourhood and public houses. 

While others in his community were still of the view that England was a temporary workplace from which they would return to Pakistan he had bought a house, been appointed to the Race Relations Board and joined the Labour Party, which was to become the vehicle for his most significant achievement, becoming the first Muslim Lord Mayor in the U.K. Given their acceptance that they were in someone else’s space, many in his community overlooked racial abuse; not him. Once he walked out of a job because the supervisor was being racist towards him. 

The word ‘community’ is a broad and inclusive one when it comes to a person of Ajeeb Sahib’s stature, given his ability and willingness to relate to, and work with, all peoples, regardless of ethnicity, religion or any other differences. So, it is befitting that, in addition to the Pakistani community, the book includes plaudits from a range of people – Hindu, Sikh, Caribbean and Christians…

“Just look at our backgrounds. Mohammed Ajeeb, a Muslim from Mirpur, Azad Kashmir; myself a Hindu from Jinja, Uganda, of Gujarati Indian origin…living, working, playing in peace and harmony in Bradford, in the U.K.. I feel blessed and proud to have him as my Elder Brother.” p69.

His appeal was broader and more mainstream. He was not a BME politician but a Labour Party politician.

“Ajeeb never tried to crawl into the limiting and belittle shell of an ethnic Pakistani or Kashmiri or Mirpuri or clan-based Councillor of a biraderi; but always took pride in being a Labour Party Councillor.”

One writer pointed out: 

His abiding legacy is the instilling in each one of us…the belief, confidence, conviction, and capacity to engage and operate across political and community divides, in the pursuit of common objectives and in the changing of people’s lives for the better. p29

His achievements are worth acknowledging and celebrating at any time. But they take on a special worth given their uniqueness and pioneering nature.

… in the history of British Pakistanis, he stands the tallest, just like the Lister Mills Chimney that dominates the horizon in hilly Bradford, giving people a sense of direction.”

A man who “has never shied away from addressing difficult issues within the Muslim communities.”

His inspirational life was summed up by two writers in these words:

By his achievements he has demonstrated that barriers could be overcome and that it is possible to chart a path to success to the highest level, even in a racially hostile climate and under adverse conditions. p29 

(He has) risen above party political lines and social and cultural affiliations to speak openly and honestly on important matters that matter to all of us. He has not shied away from controversy and he has not been frightened of criticism….p71

Recommendation

I recommend the book for adults and the younger generation across all our diverse communities; so that they gain an appreciation of the post-war development of our society and are better able to build on the foundations laid.

The following are my notes of a seminar delivered by Anderson Jeremiah, Anthony Reddie, Elizabeth Henry, Lusa Nsenga Ngoy and Sharon Prentis. Any inaccuracies is my responsibility.

BAME are at the mercy of the majority community. Being white is the norm. So, minorities are defined by not being white instead of the rich diversity each of us brings. Lives of minorities are of inferior status and less valuable if not negligible.

The church in general and the Church of England in particular is a product of the wider social framing. The church replicates and mirrors the normativity of white lives as special, superior, essential and all others as inferior.

Society and church are primarily defined by a particular privileged majority community that sees the minority communities as neither equal nor valuable; as something that needs to be included at the behest of the majority community. There is a gatekeeper, there is fencing and framing within which the minority community has to be accepted. So, you will be accepted if you fit into the norm. However, the gospel of Jesus Christ questions such a social framing. It gives self-worth to every living being bearing the image of God as proclaimed in the Old Testament, as a God who embraces everyone and redeemed by the blood of Christ, gathered as a family as described in the book of Acts.

The church by its very nature is diverse. It cannot be defined by one particular norm. By its very nature, the church cannot be defined by any one majority community. Therefore, if BAME lives are not valued in the Church of England it has to seriously reconsider its definition as a church. If the Church of England is defined by a white majority, is it a church?

Minorities in the Church of England continue to be measured from the white privileged position which has access to power, opportunity and agency.

To ask the question ‘do BAME lives matter in the Church of England’ is absurd. It should be axiomatic that all lives matter. If our lives mattered we would not be asking the question in the first place. We wouldn’t need a movement if humanity had behaved in the way God had intended. We have to start with the failure of the church to be the church.

Theology of good intentions

When the church is accused of not caring for those on the margins they set up a working group, they produce a report, they have apologetic rhetoric that says we have not done better in the past and promises that we will do better in the future.

After the working group has been wound up and the report has been published with its recommendations life goes back to normal. Things are done the way they were before; until another incident forces another apology… Then we go through the same cycle again. Another working group, another report, another set of words… another theology of good intentions.

Instead what we need is radical action for change. And dethroning of whiteness

Original sin of theology; silence in the face of white supremacy

The Church of England has to ask itself who is its real lord and master. Is it Jesus Christ, a Palestinian Jew who was on the side of those on the margins or is its white supremacy? Until that question is addressed our lives are not going to matter; they will continue to be governed by the theology of good intentions.

How can a white person in 2020 ask ‘what does racism look like?’

Do BAME lives matter in the Church of England? The answer to the question is: the evidence tells us not and the experience tells us not.

My family have been Anglicans since 1643. They were slaves and indentured slaves.

When my mum came to this country from the Caribbean, she, like others, went to an Anglican church but it wasn’t the church for her. She ended up in a Pentecostal church.

Often Black lives do not matter. We are being called to repent, to lament.

The moment the Church became captive of imperial powers it lost its ability to be the church that originated in the margins. (I wonder whether the moment the Church became safe, it lost the voice it was meant to speak with. It stopped being persecuted because it was no longer posing a threat).

What would the church’s reorientation look like?

Those who currently hold the power in the church need to relinquish it and step back. With power comes privilege. Will there be relinquishing of power?

All theology is contextual. It is also autobiographical. It is (wrongly) presented as universal. This is especially so with white theologians. They pretend to be neutral, well informed, scholarly …Utter nonsense. Everyone should admit their starting point, their bias.

Theology is human speech about God. God does not do theology. Humans do. But we do theology from our locatedness as creatures. God is the creator; we are his creation. We can only write partially.

When we have all our voices around the table, then and only then we get close to who God is. It’s a lot better than just having a limited number of voices, usually white. So, a question worth asking is: who is missing from around the table?

As a minority seminarian I learnt European theology. By doing so I lost my ‘mother tongue’; because I was being taught to speak someone else’s language.

Education is key to transformation. But it’s sad the church has lost its pedagogical tool of empowering and equipping people.

How to enable BAME people in more senior roles in the Church of England?

We would never need to say: how to enable white people to do so; to get there and to flourish effectively.

We have the reports. We know what’s needed. What we need to do is to remove the structural barriers.

There is a lot of patronage in the church. This is likely to benefit white people. We have to be honest; we have an appointments process that is not fit for purpose. The church needs to make room for talented BAME people. The patronage which means there is a lack of transparency. So, the structures and systems that allow this have to be changed.

How can we be a model for society?

We have Jesus as our model. He thought things were not right, so he decided to challenge it. He wanted to offer a new model. He invited people to follow him.

So, the very task of the church is to be the alternative model.

The church should enable the presence of God in every community that we live.

If the presence of God is not facilitated by each one of us whatever ethnic background we happen to be then we cannot call ourselves as church.

In any situation we should ask: who is advantaged and who is disadvantaged. We should then ask what we need to change in order to advantage the disadvantaged. What structures and models do we need to operate so that the normative way of doing things is turned over?

The Beloved Community in the Episcopal church is a good example. It contains repentance, reconciliation, proactive action, identifying with those on the margins and having courageous conversations.

It was said of the First Century church: look how they love one another. Do we now really love one another?

Council of World Mission is another example. They moved their headquarters from London to the global south in order to decentre empire. They are planning reparations.

Bishop Francis-Dehqani, a Persian Christian added:  

• Being powerful in and of itself does not make us an effective church.
• In answer to the question: do BAME lives matter? the answer is: BAME lives matter to God. The church is God’s expression on earth through the power of Jesus Christ.
• If BAME lives matter to God then the church is not truly church or it’s a very diminished church until it fully encompasses that. To do so it need to fully understand and practice justice