Settling down to watch 24 Hours in Police Custody, the new Channel 4 programme brought to us by the team behind the excellent 24 Hours in A&E, I was expecting some proper gripping telly. What I did not envisage was to be further educated about the level of plonkery that some men are capable of. And I don’t just mean the criminals.
The custody sergeant this week was checking in a 60-year old man who was under arrest for an alleged assault and kidnap. The case was called ‘honour-based violence’, which usually refer to crimes against women and girls perpetrated by religious maniacs. There are countless such cases in the UK: revenge attacks on women who refuse to comply with forced marriage or female genital mutilation or who behave in a manner considered inappropriate to her culture – such as drinking, wearing western clothes, having any type of fun. Delighted that mainstream TV was covering the issue, I refreshed my glass and texted my feminist friends.
The man in custody was of Pakistani heritage and was being accused by his 25-year-old daughter of assaulting her in front of her sister, niece and nephew – aged two and six, respectively – then attempting to bundle her into a car to prevent her from seeing her husband, a Pakistani Muslim that the victim married despite her father’s disapproval.
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