Raj Kaur Bilkhu,in Walsalland
Eleanor Lawson,West Midlands
BBC
Make-up artist Ravita Pannu said families needed to strike a balance between protecting their daughters and not being too strict
Make-up artist Ravita Pannu has poured years of hard work into her beauty salon in Walsall.
Born in nearby Wolverhampton, she is an established business owner and proud mum.
But she’s also one of several Asian women in the West Midlands who tell the BBC they’re now constantly looking over their shoulder. And she’s terrified about her daughter leaving the house.
That’s because within the space of two months and taking place only 10 miles (16km) apart, police have received reports of two racially aggravated rapes.
Early on 9 September, a Sikh woman in her 20s was raped on Tame Road in Oldbury.
And on the evening of 25 October in the Park Hall area of Walsall, another Sikh woman who is also in her 20s was raped. A 32-year-old man named John Ashby has been charged.
In both cases perpetrators were unknown to their victims.
Another woman was assaulted with an electrical stun device in Wolverhampton on 27 October in what police said was a racially aggravated physical – but not sexual – assault.
Sukhvinder Kaur, the chair of trustees at Sikh Women’s Aid, says the charity’s helpline has been receiving more calls than usual from women who are fearful.
One woman, a single mother from Walsall with three daughters, asked the charity for a grant because she was worried about her daughters walking to school, as their route included the road where the Walsall attack occurred.
Ms Kaur said: “There is a real sense of fear now – this isn’t far-right narratives on the TV, it’s not a social media thing, it is now coming on to our streets.”
West Midlands Police
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