In 2025, police recorded 2,949 honour-based abuse (HBA) offences in England and Wales. This is abuse directed, for the most part, against women and girls who have allegedly ‘shamed’ their family or community. The cause of this supposed outrage varies, yet it often involves refusing an arranged marriage, choosing one’s own partner, seeking divorce or asserting independence. It is generally family members who carry out these punishments, which range from forcing women to remain in abusive marriages, restricting their freedom of movement, to disturbing accounts of assault – even murder, referred to as ‘honour killings’.
The scandal isn’t simply that these barbaric practices are occurring in the UK. Increasingly, authorities are incapable or unwilling to prosecute them – effectively, the state is turning a blind eye to these actions. Recently released figures by the government reveal that, last year, nearly 3,000 cases of HBA were recorded in Britain, yet a paltry 98 people were prosecuted. In other words, less than three per cent of cases went to court. In 2023, over 3,000 incidents yielded just 68 charges. According to Karma Nirvana, an organisation that monitors these crimes, HBA had the lowest conviction rate of all crimes in England and Wales last year.
It should be noted that police indifference isn’t the sole cause of these pitifully low prosecution rates. A significant factor is victims withdrawing statements, or refusing to cooperate with police. Indeed, Crown Prosecution Service data has flagged this as the top reason why HBA cases collapse, accounting for 24 per cent of failed prosecutions. Of course, it would be naive to assume that the victims have changed their mind voluntarily. Often, they are subjected to extreme pressure – including threats – by members of their family or community.
With around three-quarters of HBA victims being Muslim women, it is hard not to conclude that the proliferation of Sharia courts has played a role in this denial of justice. Wielding Islamic authority, these courts steer disputes inward, away from British courts and secular, democratic laws. Instead, Sharia courts urge reconciliation with abusive partners, advise ‘patience’ in violent marriages, and frame police involvement as shameful or a ‘last resort’. The application of Sharia principles is primarily focussed on family matters like marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody.
Sharia law is based on the doctrinal foundations of traditional Islamic jurisprudence – the Koran, the Sunnah (the reported practices and teachings of Muhammed), and other interpretations of Islamic scripture and culture. It is deeply misogynistic. Under Sharia law, a woman’s evidence is generally valued at half a man’s. Men can unilaterally pronounce ‘Talaq’ (divorce), while women often face significant barriers, such as returning the dowry or proving fault. Inheritance rules typically allocate women half the share of male heirs in equivalent positions.
Women are viewed as having little autonomy or value. As such, they are often forced to stay in abusive marriages and relationships. One woman – quoted by anti-Sharia campaigner Baroness Caroline Cox, in evidence submitted to the House of Lords in 2016 – recounts being pressured to return to her husband, despite obtaining a lawful divorce in an English court. She described Sharia judges dismissing her concerns entirely: ‘[They] did not listen to a word I had to say… I felt like a second-class citizen.’
In 2019, there were up to 85 Sharia courts known to be operating in Britain, evading state oversight. Given their propensity to coerce victims, and to forcibly commit families and whole communities to an oath of silence, it is no wonder that only three per cent of HBA allegations lead to prosecution.
The police’s selective blindness to these abuses is a form of negligence. It betrays a shameful double standard in policing, doubtless motivated by a misguided attempt to prevent ‘community tensions’. This not only erodes the legitimacy of law enforcement. It also leaves victims – often women – isolated from the protection they are entitled to under the laws of the land.
The timid approach taken by the authorities to Sharia courts and HBA mirrors the grooming-gangs scandal, in which police failed to investigate thousands of sexual offences spanning decades. In Rotherham alone, 1,400 children – mostly white British girls as young as 11 – were groomed, raped and sex trafficked between 1997 and 2013. Yet these crimes were, for the most part, ignored by South Yorkshire Police, who were more interested in protecting themselves from accusations of racism than investigating rapists who were disproportionately Pakistani Muslims. Alarmingly, it appears that the authorities have learnt nothing from this catastrophic failure.
The proliferation of Sharia courts is an affront to equality before the law. It is the embodiment of two-tier justice. As ever, it is women who suffer the most from the indifference of our politically correct rulers.
Stephen Sidney is a spiked intern.
