South Asian women in Blackburn are using community theatre to tell their own stories of coercive control—a pattern of non-physical abuse that has been a criminal offence since 2015 but remains poorly understood outside white, middle-class contexts. This matters because coercive control is underreported among South Asian women in disadvantaged urban areas like Blackburn, where barriers of marginalisation and stigmatisation add specific complexities. The project fills a gap: coercive control has been underexplored in religiously diverse, socio-economically challenged communities. If successful, the research will produce a filmed theatre performance and new police training resources tailored to diverse communities. It will also cultivate local peer experts on coercive control and strengthen a collaborative network linking South Asian women, researchers, community activists, and policymakers—including Lancashire’s Police Crime Commissioner and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. The film output could be scaled to other locations with follow-on funding, potentially reshaping how professional services recognise and respond to coercive control in communities that have been overlooked.
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Coercive control is an urgent and pervasive social problem. It constitutes a pattern of abuse, typically taking non-physical forms, having detrimental and long-lasting impacts on victims. It includes psychological abuse, threats, humiliation, monitoring, isolating one from friends and family, and financial abuse, among others. It exerts forms of control that deeply harm victims, causing loss of confidence and potential emotional, physical, social, cultural and religious distress. It is most prevalent in the domestic sphere and is still not well understood by professional services and publics alike, yet it has been criminalised since 2015. As with other forms of domestic violence, women are disproportionately harmed. Where coercive control is reported, this is most often among white, middle-class women, yet there is every indication that the problem extends well beyond this community. Blackburn is an urban community experiencing high levels of socio-economic deprivation. It is vibrant and diverse but has been overlooked in terms of urban regeneration. Our aim is to investigate coercive control within a disadvantaged and much neglected urban demographic where reporting of coercive control is low: South Asian women. The objectives include (1) developing a collaborative cultural network between South Asian women, researchers and community practitioner activists (S.A.S Rights), with policymakers (Lancashire’s Police Crime Commissioner, Lancashire Partnership Against Crime, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and Blackburn College); (2) deep listening to South Asian women’s accounts of coercive control; (3) culturally expressing those experiences through community theatre; (4) develop policy with participants and policymakers to enhance community cohesion and urban renewal in Blackburn (including new police training resources) on managing coercive control in diverse communities; (5) scaling up the project to policymakers and women beyond Blackburn. Forum theatre enacts a non-hierarchical and participatory approach which addresses social issues impacting on marginalised individuals but, crucially, maximises voice and empowerment with outputs designed by them. In a supportive environment, we will cultivate composite theatre monologues, together with the women, about coercive control, devised from in-depth interviews, but with each monologue drawing on various stories to ensure individuals are not identifiable. This will culminate in a locally-produced theatre performance that will be filmed, for further impact engagement opportunities. This project is a timely one. Coercive control has hitherto been underexplored in relation to religiously diverse and socio-economically challenged urban locations, with such communities experiencing specific complexities given barriers of marginalisation and stigmatisation. This project will learn vital insights, foster empowerment and collaborative learning and education about rights. The project will support the cultivation of local peer experts on coercive control and will generate a film output for further knowledge exchange (with the potential to be upscaled to other locations with successful follow-on funding). This research will consolidate various interest groups and perspectives to develop targeted resources using a sensitive and inclusive approach; moreover, generating crucial new perspectives that draw together arts interventions, religion and gendered violence expertise and policy impact.
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