Jasvinder Sanghera

Who is Jasvinder Sanghera?

Jasvinder Sanghera, CBE is an outspoken campaigner and advocate for the rights of those experiencing forced marriages and honour based abuse. Jasvinder was born in Derby and her parents originate from India, the Punjab. She is the founder of Karma Nirvana established in her front room 1993. Karma Nirvana is now a national and international charity that has been instrumental in developing several refuge centres across the United Kingdom serve as safe-housing for South Asian men and women fleeing forced marriages. When faced with the prospect of a forced marriage herself, she ran away from home, and she tells her story in her true story in Shame, published by Hodder and Stoughton and those of other British victims in her second book, Daughters of Shame. Both books have been translated into various languages including Japanese, Polish, Spanish.

Sanghera's debut memoir, Shame, is one where anecdotes are drawn from her own personal experiences where, when she was fourteen, was shown a photo of the man chosen to be her husband. She depicts a harrowing tale of violence, abuse and ostracism but ultimately, triumph over adversity. She appeared on The Jeremy Kyle Show in 2008 to discuss her experiences on the topic of forced marriages and she is now in her 40s, with three children, Natasha, Anna and Jordan.