However, she rebelled and resisted with all the determination a young girl could muster. Remember in those days, rebelling against family traditions was unheard of, for a woman it was near impossible. She took strength from her hero Mahatma Gandhi to engage in her own campaign of ‘civil disobedience’. Inspired by her A-level study of A Portrait of the Artist by James Joyce, Pragna fought to reject the stranglehold being enforced by her family; “I will not submit” became her personal mantra.
It was this steely determination that drove her on to support Kiranjit Ahluwalia, imprisoned for murdering her violent husband, as the first campaign that SBS would take on, successfully challenging the legal definition of ‘provocation’. Looking at Pragna, and hearing the unwavering determination in her words, I marvelled at how she was not etched with scars from the battles she has fought. If there were any, then they were well hidden from me.
More recently, SBS played a leading role in bringing about change to immigration rules which were trapping non-British-born women in abusive marriages.
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an open letter to my son
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