Honor Killings and Honor Based Violence - A Conversation with Sab

In this powerful conversation, Sab sheds light on the hidden dangers of honor-based violence, detailing how it continues to affect countless lives across the world. Through her advocacy, she works to raise awareness, support survivors, and fight for a future where no one has to fear violence in the name of family honor.

Sab's courage to speak out is a reminder that honor killings are not just tragic stories but real, preventable crimes that need urgent attention. This interview is a call to action to stand up against honor-based violence and to ensure the voices of the vulnerable are never silenced again.

About our Special Guest, Sab:

I'm a survivor of child abuse and come from a family of survivors. My mum experienced domestic abuse during many different periods of her life, and I grew up watching her support other women in our community who had been through similar experiences. That shaped so much of who I am and gave me the courage to speak up about my own experiences when friends at school started confiding in me about theirs.

I originally planned to go into law enforcement, but during university, I began volunteering at a Rape Crisis Centre and never looked back. I ended up working there for six years in various roles including Specialist BAMER (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee) Outreach Worker, Helpline Support Worker, Independent Sexual Violence Advocate (ISVA), Prevention Worker, and Trainer. I created prevention programmes for schools and colleges, and worked alongside national organisations like Barnardo’s to raise awareness and support survivors. I also spent a lot of time training professionals from police to healthcare workers on sexual violence and how to respond with compassion and confidence.

Later, I worked with Women’s Aid, supporting women on probation who were also victims of domestic abuse. While I valued my time with these organisations, I often felt that the needs of BAMER survivors were treated as a tick-box, acknowledged, but not deeply understood or embedded into practice.

Today, I’m the Director of Creative Optimistic Visions (COV), a Community Interest Company that uses the Protective Behaviours approach to help individuals and communities feel safer, build resilience, and access support through education, mentoring, and training.

I’m also the founder of Sab Against Abuse a platform dedicated to transforming how professionals understand and respond to abuse within ethnic minority communities. I specialise in training around complex and culturally sensitive issues such as forced marriage, honour-based violence, dowry abuse, female genital mutilation (FGM), and other harmful practices. My goal is to equip professionals with the tools, confidence and cultural awareness to support survivors without judgement, assumptions, or discrimination, because meaningful support starts with understanding.