Asian Woman Prisoner on Hunger Strike Against Prison Racism

- Supporters Picket Holloway Prison

Supporters of Biba Sarkaria, an Asian woman prisoner who is on hunger strike in protest against prison racism, will be demonstrating outside Holloway Prison in North London on Thursday 27 May from 1 - 2.30pm. According to her solicitor, Gareth Peirce of Birnberg, Peirce and Co., 'Biba Sarkaria has been for a long time a victim of discriminatory treatment triple that of most prisoners - as a woman, as an Asian woman, and as a practitioner of a minority religion. All of this treatment the prison service will live to regret'.

On 19 April 1999, Biba Sarkaria, a prisoner at Cookhamwood Prison began a hunger strike when she was denied her right to leave for a religious festival,Vaisakhi. She has now been transferred to Holloway Prison and has stated that she will not end her hunger strike until she has been transferred back to Cookhamwood and is given the rights routinely granted to white prisoners.

Biba Sarkaria has for years demanded equal rights for Asian women prisoners and has challenged the prison authorities over a series of incidents of racism and human rights abuses. Biba has kept in touch with many Asian women prisoners when they have left Cookhamwood and with other Asian women prisoners in other prisons. Through her efforts an Asian women prisoners support group has been set up. According to Patricia Powell, also a prisoner in Cookhamwood, 'They wanted any excuse to get rid of her. Biba knows her rights more than any of us and she fights for them not just for herself but for all of us'.Tina Malloy, a friend and a fellow prisoner also expressed concern that Biba has a serious heart condition, and she was already very weak when she was taken to Holloway.

Racism at Cookhamwood Prison

• Asian women are effectively denied the right to wear Asian  clothes in the prison. Since most Asian women prisoners did not have supportive families who would send them ready-made clothes, in 1996 some of them asked for material to be sent in to make their own salwar kameez. The authorities claimed this would be a "security risk". Their hypocrisy was exposed when two weeks later, an English prisoner was sent sari material and then asked an Asian woman to make it into a skirt for her. Up to now Asian women are still not allowed to get material to make Asian clothes. Meanwhile, English women have wool for knitting, and fur fabrics for making teddy bears.
• A prisoner who pleaded for compassionate leave to see her ill father was told that she had to get a letter from a doctor in Pakistan as proof. Ms.Begum was in the last month of her sentence when her father became very ill and she made an application to the governor for leave 2 or 3 days before her automatic release. He refused and her father died without seeing her. When challenged the prison authorities responded with  "there's been a misunderstanding ".
• In 1997, Biba Sarkaria's father had a heart bypass operation and she heard that he was in hospital. After phoning everywhere and receiving no reply she ran out of phone cards. She approached the prison officers to make an important phone call which she could pay for. They refused point blank. The very next day a white woman who could not trace her alcoholic husband who often went missing was allowed three phone calls.
• In summer 1998, a prison officer (Ms. Taylor) made every effort to stop the Asian women from watching the TV and video. For seven whole weeks either the videos or the video lead went missing and then the video itself vanished. Each time this happened the Asian prisoners were denied the right to use the TV room. After continuous confrontations the videos were eventually found in the office of the prison officers.

On 15th May 1999, when Biba asked her doctor for some extra tablets for a headache, she was refused. When complaining about her treatment, she commented 'I feel like I am being held as a hostage'. Later that day, all the other prisoners were locked up and  five officers came to Biba's cell, forced her out and took her to the segregation block where there were no blankets and no water. She was already on hunger strike and was now effectively denied any liquids. In the morning she was told that she had been taken to the solitary block because she had been overheard making threats to take someone hostage!

In Biba's own words: 'I feel I have been victimised and I am not going to stop my hunger strike until I get back to Cookhamwood and I am allowed the same  religious and cultural rights as white prisoners. I want an end to this victimisation and I want to be compensated for this inhuman treatment.'

Details: South Asia Solidarity Group Tel:0171 267 0212 / 0181 572 1895

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