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Aisha K. Gill

(she/her)
Professor of Criminology, Centre for Gender and Violence Research, University of Bristol

Professor Aisha K. Gill, Ph.D. (University of Essex) CBE is Professor of Criminology at the University of Bristol. Her main areas of interest focus on health and criminal justice responses to violence against Black, minority ethnic and refugee women and girls in the UK, Afghanistan, Georgia, Iraqi Kurdistan, Libya, India, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen. Professor Gill is often in the news as a commentator on early/child/forced marriage, violence predicated on 'honour', and sexual violence in South Asian communities. She writes for mainstream popular as well as academic audiences. Her current research interests include domestic violence; coercive control; rights, law and early/child/forced marriage/female genital mutilation; 'honour' killings and 'honour'-based violence in the South Asian/Kurdish/Somali Diaspora and femicide in Iraqi Kurdistan, India, Jordan, Libya, Pakistan and Yemen; missing women; acid violence; child contact; child sexual abuse; trafficking; sexual violence and exploitation; sex selective abortions; intersectionality; women who kill; rape, trauma and victimhood in Black and minoritized communities; Covid -19 and domestic violence/abuse. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals .
Since March 2020, Gill has been involved in a Nuffield funded research on the effectiveness of forced marriage protection orders, in collaboration with University of Lincoln. During the coronavirus pandemic she has also been hands-on at the grassroots level in terms of raising emergency Covid-19 funds for refugee/asylum/migrant victims-survivors of gender-based violence - who have no recourse to public funds. To date she has raised over £90K for specialist 'by and for' VAWG services. In April 2021, Gill was appointed as one of the five judges for the CEDAW's People's Tribunal hearing, on women's rights in the United Kingdom. In 2021-2022, Gill worked closely with colleagues from the University of Durham on a Home Office funded research project that focused on better understanding the motives and patterns of perpetration of family violence, in Black, minoritised and LGBTQI+ communities.

Professor Gill has been involved in addressing the problem of violence against women and girls (VAWG) at the grassroots level for 20+ years. She is invited adviser to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) strategic support group on investigations and complaints involving gendered forms of violence against women in the UK (including domestic violence); member of Liberty's Project Advisory Group; member of Kurdish Women's Rights Watch; Imkaan and Chair of Newham Asian Women's Project (2004-2009 - aka London Black Women's Project). In October 2019, she was invited to join the Victims' Commissioner's Advisory Panel, chaired by Dame Vera Baird, QC. Gill has extensive experience of providing expert advice to the Government, Home Office, Ministry of Justice, Scotland Yard/Metropolitan Police, Crown Prosecution Service, and the voluntary sector on legal policy issues related to 'honour-based violence/abuse, 'honour' killings, forced marriage and female genital mutilation. She has challenged politicians to be more inclusive of racially minoritised women's voices in policy-making on issues of gender-based violence and human rights. From 2019 - 2024, she was appointed Co-Chair of End Violence Against Women Coalition.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor , University of Bristol School for Policy Studies

Honours

CBE