On this episode of the en(gender)ed podcast, our guest is Nazir Afzal, former Chief Crown Prosecutor for NW England, former Director in London, and former Chief Executive of the country’s Police & Crime Commissioners. Nazir has prosecuted some of the most high profile cases in the country and advised on many other and led nationally on several legal topics including Violence against Women & Girls, child sexual abuse, and honour based violence. He is also National Adviser on Gender Based Violence to the Welsh Government. Nazir shares some poignant and compelling stories of his work in his recent book, The Prosecutor, which chronicles his 24 year career. We also speak with Nazir today about the impact of COVID-19 or the coronavirus on increasing instances of gender-based violence and policy, procedural, or other reforms that he offers for abuser accountability and increasing victim safety and security.
During our conversation, Nazir and I referenced the following resources and topics:
- The personal toll the coronavirus has had on Nazir’s own family, through his brother’s death
- Domestic violence as “domestic terrorism”or “gender terrorism”
- Britain’s recent commitment to increase funding to address domestic violence and sex trafficking increases due to COVID-19
- The idea that victims should stay put instead of being forced to leave their homes and have abusers leave instead
- Joan Smith’s book, Home Grown
- How misogyny and hate is learned behavior
- The role of unconscious bias in shaping people’s attitudes and actions
- Nazir’s role in bringing down the Rochdale child sex abuse ring
- Victim-blaming and rape culture
- BBC’s depiction of the Rochdale case in its TV show, Three Girls
- The Netflix show, Unbelievable, about rape culture
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