Women’s Day – Spotlight on Neglected Victims of Grooming Gangs

On this occasion of Women’s Day, which celebrates the history of women fighting for equality, there continues to be many challenges for the women today to attain this notion of ‘equality’ when many organized groups continue to exploit women for physical and financial benefits. Here is a brief expose on one such challenge.

Love Jihad which was assumed largely to be a conspiracy is in reality a world-wide phenomenon. Grooming Gangs prevailing in many countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, USA, and Canada are a testimony to this Grooming Gang is a vaster concept which includes Love Jihad but is characterized more as modern slavery for physical and financial abuse.

Just like Love Jihad, Grooming Gang is a gradual process which first begins with targeting the victim, creating friendship, building trust and affection with gifts and promises. Eventually the abuser seeks for similar gratification from the victim. However, the victim may not reciprocate in a similar manner or the abuser may not be satisfied with what the victim provides. Thus, the abuser’s stage is set by psychologically creating an obligatory imposition in the mind of the victim through Classical Conditioning (a popular concept in Psychology) to perpetually satisfy the abuser, the abusing starts.

The abuser may either push for predatory marriage or enjoy perpetual exploitation until the victim is demented. The family/friends of the victim will be isolated from the victim through coercion to elope for moving-in together/marriage, and eventually the groomer may bring the victim to act for his cause which may either be a resultant radicalisation of the victim or exploiting the victim for sexual and financial abuse.

Few signs of identifying victims of grooming include victims who have withdrawn and are mostly troubled with volatile emotions. They are isolated from their family and friends and are reluctant to meet their friends, for no cause; while being busy all the time with this supposed-abuser ‘friend’ or ‘lover’. There have been several incidents that have been reported across different locations, where the abuser was from a particular religious community.

Victims of Grooming Gangs

Lisa Borch, 15 years old Danish teen stabs her mother 20 times after becoming radicalised by an Iraqi boyfriend aged 39 years. During her case proceeding, the court had observed how she was radicalised. Forensic analysis of her computer showed that she had regularly watched videos of beheadings carried out in terrorist groups in Syria.

Further, this was a preemptive murder as Lisa had also shown her twin sister a knife that she was going to use to kill her mother. (Source)

1400 girls duped: the unspeakable truth about Rotherham. This may have been the most disturbing incident that the world has ever witnessed, however strangely this is a forgotten incident. Reported in the year 2014, where over 1400 cases of young girls about 12 to 14 years were lured into a life of drugs, alcohol and abuse and thereafter groomed and raped repeatedly by abusers who were from Pakistani origin.

Men, mostly British citizens of Pakistani origin, were those tasked with grooming victims in Rotherham

It was reported that men from a particular minority ethnic background and religious group were committing sex crimes against white children. Several schools, more particularly secular schools were targeted for radicalising children into Islam. (Source)

British Sikh girls exploited sexually by grooming gangs of men from a particular religious community. In these cases, it was reported that once a man grooms a woman, he would then pass her around to other friends and his family members. The abusers would mostly show a flamboyant and fashionable side and travel around in fancy cars in Sikh dominated areas and schools. It was more than this; there is an organized racket where there is widespread grooming and abuse of Sikh girls in the United Kingdom.

The local law enforcement agencies have shown no concern to address the problems, and such grooming gang networks have been flourishing at large. (Source)

There has been an increase in grooming gang cases abroad, where in some countries there are even helpline numbers available for victims to address the issues. The exploitation of the victims in grooming gang are seen mostly as an issue of sexual offences on women, and not more of an organized racket which is growing with predetermined planning at an international scale.

The Grooming Gang or International Love Jihad is a growing menace and we must hope that Governments of secular countries and United Nations take a decision to create awareness and mitigate the issue, before it is too late.

Victims of Love Jihad

Grooming Gang or Love Jihad is almost synonymous. Love Jihad means to ‘use love for Jihad’. Jihad is a very holy concept in Islam, meaning ‘war against the infidels/non-Islam believers’. Thus, Love Jihad comes to mean ‘a Muslim man using love for a non-Muslim girl to wage a war against her religion’.

In India, there are several cases reported, while majority of them never get reported. Here are some infamous incidents of Love Jihad report in India in recent times.

Shot Dead by Tausif for Refusing to Convert and Marry Him–this was the poster put outside the house of the deceased Nikita Tomar’s house after she was shot in the head from point-blank range by her stalker. The video had become viral. If not for the evidentiary proof of the viral video which clearly identifies Tausif murdering Nikita Tomar, this news may have never seen the light of day. (Source)

86 members of a family booked by UP Police under 16 separate FIRs for beguiling, influencing and pressurising women and minor girls for conversion to Islam. (Source)

Due to many such rampant cases of Love Jihad, Uttar Pradesh government was compelled to enact a law i.e., Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020 to control predatory marriage and forceful conversion in the garb of inter-faith love.

While India is a step ahead than most of the other countries in realizing this ‘Love Jihad’ ticking-clock which will someday burst into a loud alarm whilst creating irreparable damage. The first step to any change is awareness, second step is acceptance and third step is what the UP government did, enact a law to prohibit such unlawful and coerced religious conversions.

So, is it time for the international community to pass a law against Love Jihad and Grooming Gangs? Hope this Women’s Day triggers the debate to safeguard the rights of women across the world in order to free them from such coercion, discrimination, and violence.

_{(Views expressed are authors own and does not necessarily reflect that of SamvadaWorld)}

Swara Murthy