Professor Aisha K. Gill, Ph.D. (University of Essex) CBE is Professor of Criminology whose research and practice focus on health and criminal justice responses to violence against Black, minority ethnic, refugee, and racially minoritised women and girls. Her work spans the UK and international contexts, including Afghanistan, Georgia, Iraqi Kurdistan, Libya, India, Pakistan, Romania, Syria, and Yemen. Professor Gill is a leading public commentator on early, child and forced marriage, ‘honour’-based violence, and sexual violence in Black and South Asian communities, and she regularly contributes to both mainstream media and academic publications. Her current research interests include domestic violence and abuse; coercive control; rights, law, and early/child/forced marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C); Sikh, Hindu, and Islamic marriage practices; ‘honour’ killings and ‘honour’-based violence within South Asian, Kurdish, Roma, and Somali diasporic communities; 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 abortion; intersectionality; filicide and women who kill; rape, trauma, and victimhood in Black and racially minoritised communities; Covid-19 and domestic violence and abuse; policing and trust; masculinities and sexual abuse; and sextortion/gender-based corruption.

She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals (see publications section). During the Covid-19 pandemic, Professor Gill worked extensively at the grassroots level, raising emergency funds to support refugee, asylum-seeking, and migrant victim-survivors of gender-based violence who have no recourse to public funds. To date, she has raised over £90,000 for specialist ‘by and for’ violence against women and girls (VAWG) services. In April 2021, Professor Gill was appointed as one of five judges to the CEDAW People’s Tribunal on women’s rights in the United Kingdom. In May 2023, she completed Nuffield-funded research on the effectiveness of Forced Marriage Protection Orders, undertaken in collaboration with the University of Lincoln. In December 2024, she completed an ESRC-funded project with the University of Sheffield examining police responses to gender-based violence in Black and racially minoritised communities. From February 2026, she will be working on new UKRI-funded research at the University of Bristol focused on sexual violence, shame, and epistemic injustice.

Professor Gill has over 20 years’ experience addressing violence against women and girls at the grassroots, policy, and international levels. She is an invited adviser to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) Strategic Support Group on investigations and complaints involving gendered violence against women in the UK (including domestic abuse). She is also a member of Liberty’s Project Advisory Group; Kurdish Women’s Rights Watch; and Imkaan and previously served as Chair of Newham Asian Women’s Project (2004–2009), formerly known as London Black Women’s Project. In October 2019, she was invited to join the Victims’ Commissioner’s Advisory Panel, chaired by Dame Vera Baird KC. Professor Gill has extensive experience providing expert advice to government departments, including the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, as well as the Metropolitan Police, Crown Prosecution Service, and the voluntary sector on legal and policy issues relating to ‘honour’-based violence and abuse, ‘honour’ killings, forced marriage, and female genital mutilation. She has consistently challenged policymakers to ensure the meaningful inclusion of racially minoritised women’s voices in gender-based violence and human rights policymaking, bridging grassroots expertise with national and international policy debates. From 2019 to 2024, she served as Co-Chair of the End Violence Against Women Coalition and continues as an Associate Member. In December 2025, she was appointed Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Ashiana Network, a specialist ‘by and for’ organisation delivering critical frontline support to women and children affected by gender-based violence and harm.

Topics interested in supervising

Professor Gill welcomes postgraduate research supervision in the following areas:

• Covid-19, domestic violence in Black and minority ethnic and refugee communities, health inequalities, poverty, structural racism violence against women/crimes of patriarchy/femicide/forced marriage/ 'honour' killings/ 'honour'-based violence/female genital mutilation gender, crime and victimisation gender, human rights and/or feminist theory women's movements and policy policing, punishment and crime ('race', gender and social class) policing, violence and ethnic minorities, domestic violence, criminal justice policy and law, sexual violence and child sexual exploitation, acid violence, bride kidnappings, sex-selective abortions, intersectionality, victimology and women who kill, coercive control and violence policing public spaces, gender-related hate crimes/Incel based violence, victimhood and agency, virginity testing and hymenoplasty surgery, femicide policing and domestic violence, rape as a weapon of war.

Media

1. Power Off: How feminism can combat digital violence, Transforming Society. 9 December 2025. https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2025/12/09/power-off-how-feminism-can-combat-digital-violence/
2. True Crime Presents: A Murder Without Honour,  8 December 2025 https://www.itv.com/watch/murder-first-on-scene/10a3804/10a3804a0005  
3. Harsh immigration rhetoric ‘failing’ honour-based abuse victims, experts warn Harsh immigration rhetoric ‘failing’ honour-based abuse victims, experts warn | South West Londoner 4 December 2025.
4. The case of Jaysley Beck, LBC Radio, 1 November 2025, LBC : 1st November, 19:05 UTC  PLAY CLIP.
5. Justice before politics, Asian Times, https://www.asian-voice.com/News/UK/JUSTICE-BEFORE-POLITIC  26 June 2025.
6. How to make sure the new grooming gangs inquiry is the last, The Conversation https://theconversation.com/how-to-make-sure-the-new-grooming-gangs-inquiry-is-the-last-259096 23 June 2025.
7. Justice before politics, Asian Times, https://www.asian-voice.com/News/UK/JUSTICE-BEFORE-POLITIC 26 June 2025.
8. Disunited Kingdom: Are we a nation divided?"  https://www.itv.com/watch/news/disunited-kingdom-are-we-a-nation-divided/cf4321c |  
9. Murder without ‘honour’. https://m.imdb.com/news/ni65093283/?ref_=tt_nwr_1
10. I research child sexual abuse. We need action to help victims – not another inquiry. https://theconversation.com/i-research-child-sexual-abuse-we-need-action-to-help-victims-not-another-inquiry-247003 The Conversation. 
11. The preventable death of Sara Sharif. BBC Woman’s Hour. Woman's Hour - Sara Sharif, Netball, Disability stigma, 80s egg donors - BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0025vvj 
12. The unspeakable murder of Sara Sharif https://harmandcrime.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/2024/12/11/the-unspeakable-murder-of-sara-sharif/ [11 December 2024].
13. Far-right violence and anti-racism protests, BBC Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0021qp2 
14. How the legal tools to prevent forced marriage can lead to further abuse:  https://theconversation.com/how-the-legal-tools-to-prevent-forced-marriage-can-lead-to-further-abuse-206424
15. ‘Tip of the iceberg’: Forced marriage reports soar but true scale of problem still hidden:  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/forced-marriage-protection-orders-b2344787.html
16. BBC Woman’s Hour – Forced Marriage https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/m001lytm
17. The Balancing Act, BBC Radio 4. Discussion with Jeremy Bowen about media reporting of child sexual exploitation:   https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jkk5/broadcasts/upcoming
18. LBC radio. Discussion of Metropolitan Police using counter-terrorism tactics to catch men attacking women: UKRADLBC_07-18-2023_16.39.24.wma (sharepoint.com)
19. Concerns over the rise of acid attacks: Fresh warning over rise of 'copycat' acid attacks in Britain as map shows how there have been FOUR chemical assaults in just two weeks - including Clapham and Croydon | Daily Mail Online ; https://ustimespost.com/shocking-rise-in-chemical-attacks-in-uk-including-clapham-horror-and-mystery-substance-thrown-on-woman-in-pub/
20. Acid attacks are a form of violence against women – the law needs to treat them as such https://theconversation.com/acid-attacks-are-a-form-of-violence-against-women-the-law-needs-to-treat-them-as-s//www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxQmgp2YaKU [1:38:55 | 23 July 2024]uch-223040
21. Talk TV. Discussion of police warning of influencers fuelling epidemic of violence against women, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxQmgp2YaKU [1:38:55 | 23 July 2024.