How do you empower women of color to speak out against the violence inflicted by their own families and ethnic communities who, in relation to the anti-immigrant sentiment in this country, are suppose to be a source of support rather than fear?  How, then, do you organize around an issue that demands anonymity for individuals and yet deserves public scrutiny on a local and global scale?

Established in 1992, Narika has developed several strategies for bringing together the issues of immigration and the cultural particularities of domestic violence against South Asian women.

“Narika is based on a sister to sister model,” Atashi Chakravarty, executive director, explains. “We want to recreate the kinds of communities women leave behind when they come to this country.  It’s important to help connect women to other women so that they can support each other and not feel so isolated.” 

Working with the Next Generation
Narika’s student based group at UC Berkeley is led by student and anti-trafficking activist Annie Fukushima who has organized a three part lecture series addressing the impact of violence on the (South East) Asian and Pacific Islander community, violence within queer Asian women’s experiences and the role students can play in creating positive solutions.   

Working in Coalitions
Knowing that they cannot go at it alone, Narika is involved with a number of collaborations. The Asian Anti-Trafficking Collaborative (AATC) brings together different women across Asian and Pacific Islander communities and helps to make legal and social distinctions between the trafficking of women and domestic violence.  While these issues are related in terms of a holistic approach for the well being of women and immigrant families, Chakravarty explains that in terms of policy and current institutional support, too often trafficking issues are collapsed into issues of domestic violence, a practice that is more a result of a lack of resources than an understanding or commitment to legislative and social solutions.

Narika plays an important role in organizing solidarity around the health of women without minimizing cultural differences or innovative policy analysis.  Chakravarty experience with BAIRC is another example of cross-ethnic solidarity and pushing new policy forward. 
“Working with BAIRC and not feeling like an insolated immigrant community has been wonderful.  We’ve been able to expand our legal resources and immigration policy component and work with other organizations concerned with reproductive justice for women.”