LONDON: Oldham-born Iqbal had glossed over the cultural issues underlying his criminal activities since 1995. Whether on probation for motoring offences at 16 or serving four-and-a-half years for rioting in 2001, he’d placate officials with what he thought they wanted to hear. Iqbal is a second-generation British-Asian not entirely comfortable with his dual identities. Since childhood he’d shouldered responsibility as interpreter and spokesman for his Urdu-speaking parents, yet outside the home, Iqbal ran wild, broke the law and brought shame upon his family.
His 11-year cycle of crime changed on leaving prison in April 2005. Still on licence, Iqbal, now 27, was summoned by his probation officer to a three-way meeting with Tahir Abassi, service manager of Greater Manchester probation area’s South Asian Offenders’ Project (SAOP). Formed in 1996 to maximise understanding and cooperation between probation staff and South Asian offenders, SAOP’s offence-focused work helps both parties to communicate more clearly on matters of culture, religion and the law.
Iqbal recalls: “I trusted Tahir immediately. I felt able to open up. I’d no need to explain the workings of my culture. Tahir is Pakistani and knows. He’s firm about my misdeeds. He’s helping me change my way of thinking. My weekly meetings at the probation office are down to once monthly. We still discuss my offences on a three-way basis, but for cultural issues, it’s me and Tahir.”
Some 5.3 per cent of Greater Manchester’s 2.5 million inhabitants are South Asian. Each year, probation staff and law graduates Abassi and Sabena Khan work with 300 South Asian men and women, whose offences vary from shoplifting, motoring, drink and drug-related crimes to domestic violence, sex offences and murder. As culturally diverse as their places of origin, these Muslim, Hindu, Christian and Sikh clients may be British-born or have come more recently from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.
Some attribute their wrongdoings to the influence of magic forces. Some contravene English law through ignorance. A Sikh newcomer required by his faith to carry a sword caused mayhem by drawing his weapon in the street. SAOP ensured he understood the illegality and inappropriateness of his actions, had him substitute a miniature sword-charm for the original, and culturally guided the probation officer for the pre-sentencing report.
Abassi and Khan also contribute to parole reports, rehabilitation orders, community punishment orders and licences for temporary release. Rochdale officer Amanda Smith says: “During interviews, a client of mine had repeatedly come out with: ‘In the Asian culture, that’s what we do.’ So I brought Tahir on board to explain and iron out the issues on both sides.”
Some second and third generation Asians resort to offending to avoid arranged marriages. Others, savvy of the law, try playing the race card. Abassi says: “We’re here to identify and remove barriers — to help reduce reoffending, not condone crime. South Asian offenders and English officials operate from such widely differing value bases and hold mutually stereotypical views that, initially, clients who dislike our challenges brand us ‘traitor’. But domestic violence offenders can’t get away with saying: ‘That’s what goes on back home if your wife answers back.’ Violence is never acceptable. Misquoting religious texts to cover up doesn’t wash with us. We examine circumstances behind each offence to see if it is or isn’t faith or culturally linked.”—Dawn/The Guardian News Service
