Two years ago a young mother aged 27 named Navjeet Sidhu took her five year old daughter and 23 month old son into her arms and jumped in front of a moving train in London, killing all three of them. Six months later her mother jumped in front of a train at the same spot. During one week in July four women in four days committed suicide by train in London. What did they have in common? They were all Asian women who had reportedly suffered some abuse at the hand of their husbands or a male relative.
First Great Western, the rail company who owns the train system, released statistics reported in the Daily Mail by Glen Owen and Oliver Wadeson estimating a rise in suicide-by-train–240 within the past year with the majority of them being Asian. A member of a women’s support group (Southall Black Sisters) named Hannana Siddiqui is quoted as saying, “The high instance of Asian women suicides is linked to abusive practices within Asian families. There is a correlation between these suicides and violence in Asian homes. Psychiatric research has shown there are rarely cases of mental disorders in these cases, suggesting they are the result of social circumstances. These women are often isolated and find it hard to escape.”
The suicides have not only become a concern in the Asian community but in the whole UK since each time a suicide-by-train occurs it causes serious delays for commuters. Apparently the women feel there is no other way to escape adultery, domestic violence, or alcohol abuse they are subjected to by Asian men according to Yasmin Whittaker Khan, a Muslim playwright. The abuse is occurring regardless of the women’s religious affiliations, whether Muslim, Hindu, or Sikh.
Personally, I’m in favor of immigrant groups preserving their culture, but when it negatively affects the nation to which they have immigrated, changes need to be made. Unfortunately, many immigrants feel they can do everything they did in their native country without regard for the laws of their new land or without seeing a need to drop any negative traditions. This results in the nation allowing them in to use time and resources to try to resolve their communities’ problems when those resources could have been devoted elsewhere.
It is interesting how those in various religions claim to potential converts that they have the answers to finding truth and peace, then a close look at their personal lives behind closed doors reveals a whole lot of misery, darkness, and hopelessness. People tend to have messed up lives no matter what human culture you investigate. It just confirms to me that we all need Jesus Christ in our lives. Even though I come across those who claim to be Christians, but have some of the same problems, I know what Christ has done for me personally when I put his word into practice. He’s delivered me out of some messes and protected me from others. And when hard times come, it’s comforting to know he’s with me in the midst of it even when his presence isn’t obvious.
I hope and pray these women can find a more constructive escape from their hardships. The route they’re choosing to take only puts them in a more severe situation by dying without the Lord Jesus Christ than they would if they remained alive with the possibility of one day being saved. It is also sad that with all of the advances women have made worldwide that there are men trying to keep women under their thumbs instead of encouraging and loving them to be better at whatever positive thing they want to do with their lives.
–posted by Harry A. Gaylord–
