Jasvinder Sanghera

Biography

Jasvinder Sanghera was born and brought up in Derby. A survivor of a forced marriage, she is the founder of Karma Nirvana, a national award winning charity that supports both men and women affected by honour based abuse and forced marriages.

She is a highly acclaimed international speaker and an expert advisor to the courts. Her memoir ‘Shame’ was a Times Top 10 Bestseller. Jasvinder is recognised as bringing the issue of forced marriage into the public domain and Prime Minister David Cameron stated that her work ‘turned my head on the issue of forced marriage’. Her work is recognised as being pivotal to the creation of a specific UK forced marriage criminal offence in 2014. She has received numerous awards including the prestigious Woman Of The Year 2007. She was made an Honorary Doctor of the University of Derby in 2008.

She was awarded The Pride of Britain Award in 2009 and was named Cosmopolitan Ultimate Woman of the Year in 2010. In 2011 she was listed in the Guardian top 100 Most Inspirational Women in the World. She was awarded Commander of the British Empire in 2013 in recognition of her outstanding contribution for the victims of forced marriage and honour based abuse and in 2014 was awarded Legal Campaigner of the Year. Jasvinder is also listed as an entry in the 2016 edition of the book Who’s Who.

Other activities

Jasvinder is the judge for international art competition in London Passion For Freedom London Festival at Mall Galleries (Exhibition: Mall Galleries September 2015).

Publications

1. Shame ISBN 978-0340924600 (25 Jan 2007)
2. Daughters of Shame ISBN 978-0340997826 (6 Aug 2009)
3. Shame Travels (2011)