THE QUEEN HAS TODAY VISITED LONDON-BASED WOMEN’S REFUGE, THE ASHIANA NETWORK
Wednesday 6th December 2023
Her Majesty The Queen has today visited the Ashiana Network, which operates a number of women’s refuges based in London. The Ashiana Network supports South Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish women who have experienced traumas including domestic and sexual violence, forced marriage, honour-based violence, financial abuse and coercive control.
Today, at one of the Ashiana Network’s crisis accommodation houses in London, Her Majesty spent time with residents at the refuge who have recently escaped systematic violence and heard about the charity’s pioneering work to end violence against women and girls. The Queen has been a champion of preventing violence against women for more than a decade, including becoming patron of the UK charity, SafeLives, as Duchess of Cornwall in February 2021.
Her Majesty was shown the facility by a refuge resident, before meeting key staff including the Director of the Ashiana Network, Shaminder Ubhi, and representatives from partner organisations such as the GMSP Foundation and the London Borough of Waltham Forest.
The Ashiana Network is community-based project first established in 1989. It grew from a need for safe housing for young south Asian women who were experiencing familial domestic violence and began as a seven-bed house with resettlement support, becoming an independent charity in 1994.
The Network has since expanded to provide a range of services for South Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish women and girls and is nationally recognised as a high-quality ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) organisation.
