Reflections on EDI issues in trauma informed approaches - a blog for South Asian Cultural Heritage Month

Trauma informed approaches in health, education and social care need to ensure that anti-racist and anti-discriminatory practice are embedded in all its policies and procedures so that they take an intersectional approach to understanding the lived experience of trauma.

It is essential that there is an acknowledgement that trauma occurs within the personal, social and political context of a person and their intersecting identities.

Structural racism and discrimination towards an individual's race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, accent, age and immigration status (and other aspects of their identity) can lead to inequalities in health, education and employment.

This in turn can create significant disadvantages which combined with intergenerational trauma, poverty and limited preventative care in health and education settings can lead to poorer mental health outcomes for service users, such as for example:

• higher rates of psychiatric admissions for black young men,
• over representation of black service users in the criminal justice system,
• higher mortality rates in service users with intellectual disabilities
• under utilisation of mental health care by South Asian communities.

As an example, a Muslim South Asian man on low income living in East London post 9/11 and the 7/11 London bombings, may experience specific discrimination due to the intersection between his gender, race, religion and socio-economic status.

Traumatic experiences of the practice of anti-terror legislation by the police, combined with other aspects of his identity may lead to an increase in marginalisation, social isolation and poorer health outcome.

When considering trauma, there needs to be a greater focus on the origins of trauma not just from a personal developmental perspective, but from a historical angle which takes into account injustices and humanitarian crises that have occurred throughout history.

These include the intergenerational impact of:

• slavery
• holocaust
• political dictatorship
• climate disasters
• war
• colonisation
• national famines.

During South Asian Cultural Heritage Month (18th July-17th August), I am reflecting on my own experience as a Bangladeshi woman of growing up hearing horrific accounts of killings and mass war rape of at least 200,000 Bangladesh women and girls by Pakistani soldiers during the liberation war between East Pakistan and West Pakistan.

This war ended in 1971, giving rise to Bangladesh which is still recovering from the aftermath of atrocities often shared first hand by those who experienced and witnessed such events.

My own uncle was shot in his home in a raid of national intellectuals by Pakistani soldiers. His body was discarded in a pile along with hundreds of others whose whereabouts were secretly leaked by Bangladeshis collaborating with Pakistani officials. Every year, his photograph is published in Bangladeshi newspapers along with others like him, who the nation celebrates as a war heroes.

To this day, Bangladeshis across the world including the UK celebrate Independence Day through organizing arts events and celebrating poets such as Kazi Nazrul Islam who was imprisoned for his rebellious political poetry during the war.

The challenge of trauma informed approaches may be to bring about change in those holding positions of privilege to address their own fragility and to become aware of underlying epistemological assumptions that may lead to unconscious bias.

A trauma informed approach may need to consider differential manifestation of trauma across diverse groups and alternative forms of healing, informed by knowledge and wisdom, including spirituality, which communities have drawn on historically to overcome struggles.

This relies on learning from those with lived experiences, and working in partnership with local people to support communities to strengthen their narratives about collective resilience and intergenerational wisdom. 

The following video shares the experiences of Bangladeshi women of war ('Birangona') which is artistically captured in a theatre production called 'Rising Silence: Women of War' by Komola Collective. Leesa Gazi, theatre director and actor also grew up hearing war stories which compelled her to communicate these to a wider audience.

Her journey in meeting Birangona women, as well as her courage in performing in this production is an example of how community arts can be a powerful medium to share stories of suffering and resilience, which in turn can support healing and empowerment for those who have been impacted by direct or vicarious trauma.

The women in this video say 'tell our story to the world'.

For those working with South Asian women who have experienced sexual trauma, it is important to be aware of the social and historical context, acknowledge that injustices have occurred and as Leesa did in this video, perhaps use a spiritual framework where appropriate to remind survivors that 'if heaven is not for you, then who could it be for?'

Warning: this video contains distressing material:

Watch the video on YouTube