Chander Gautham came to the UK from India in March 1995 as a wife of a British Citizen. As a spouse she was granted leave to remain for the usual probationary period of 12 months also known as the "one year" rule, following which she could apply to remain here permanently. Chander lived with her husband and his family. She describes how she was subjected to verbal abuse and cruel taunts from her husband and in-laws and adds that on occasions, her husband was aggressive and physically violent. Chander states that she was kept a virtual prisoner (rarely allowed out and denied access to the telephone) made to do all the housework and forced to eat leftovers separate from the rest of the family. She also recalls being refused permission to listen to the radio or watch the television and receiving little or no money.

About August 1995, Chander felt that her relationship with her husband and in-laws began to improve. She says that they, together with a friend of the family persuaded her to visit her ailing and elderly mother in India, re-assuring her that as 'Rajput' Hindus they did not believe in divorce. Content that her marital problems were now over, Chander went to India for a short holiday in September 1995.

However, when in India, Chander was shocked to receive a letter from her husband stating that he wanted a divorce. Fearful that her continued presence as a separated woman would bring shame onto their family honour and attract hostility from the community Chander's family disowned her. In November 1995, Chander returned to the UK in order to save her marriage. However, upon arrival at Heathrow airport, Chander was treated as a new arrival, despite the fact that she had a valid visa until March 1996. Chander was informed that she would be returned to India the following day. In the meantime, she contacted a solicitor and made an application for asylum on the basis of the persecution she would experience as a divorced woman in India. She was then granted temporary leave to remain whilst her application was being considered. Her application for asylum was refused in October 1996.

Domestic violence in the UK

Chander's case highlights the inhumanity, racism and sexism of the UK Immigration and Asylum laws. Her campaign not only exposes the way in which the 'one year rule' entraps women in violent marriages, where husbands and in-laws can abuse and abandon women, treating the marriage as if it was on "trial", it also fights for women to be granted refugee status on the basis of gender related persecution: a rarely used and difficult innovative legal argument.

Gender persecution in India

Chander is terrified of returning to India. She comes from a conservative Rajput Hindu background where it is traditionally considered better for a woman to die than to live without her husband. The practice of 'sati' (a widow's self-immolation on her husbands funeral pyre) originated from Rajput communities and although outlawed has taken place as recently as 1987.

Divorced women in these communities are often ostracised and treated as outcasts, leaving them destitute and vulnerable to economic and sexual exploitation. They are open to violence harassment and discrimination. Chander's family have disowned her. They have already said that it is better for her to live or die in the UK than return to India. She also fears ostracism, abuse and discrimination from the wider community in a context where the police and other state agencies fail to protect women from violence. In these circumstances Chander, who has already been diagnosed as suffering from severe depression, is a serious suicide risk.

A stark choice: domestic violence or deportation?

The "one year" immigration rule can make a woman, entering the UK on the basis of marriage, dependant on a violent husband for at least 12 months. Abused women have a stark choice: either stay within a marriage and risk their lives, and those of any children they have, or leave and face deportation. The British state must abolish or reform the "one year" rule in order to protect women and children from domestic violence.

For further information, please contact Southall Black Sisters, 542 Norwood Road Southall, Middlesex.

Tel. 0181 571 9595 Fax. 0181 574 6781