This book analyses the practice of virginity testing endured by South Asian women who wished to enter Britain between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, and places this practice into a wider historical context. Using recently opened government documents the extent to which these women were interrogated and scrutinized at the border is uncovered.

Autorentext

Evan Smith is Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of International Studies at Flinders University, Australia. He has written widely on the British immigration control system, the politics of race in Britain and the British far left.

Marinella Marmo is Associate Professor in Criminology at Flinders University Law School, Australia. Her research interests include international criminal justice, transnational crime and comparative criminology.

Inhalt
Introduction 1. Decolonisation and the Creation of the British Immigration Control System 2. The Border as a Filter: Maintaining the Divide in the Post-Imperial Era 3. Reorienting the South Asian Female Body: the Practice of 'Virginity Testing' and the Treatment of Migrant Women 4. Deny, Normalise and Obfuscate: the Government Response to the Virginity Testing Practice and Other Physical Abuses 5. The Postcolonial World Stage: Immigration and Britain's International Reputation 6. Discrimination by other Means: Further Restrictions on Migrant Women and Children under the Conservatives Conclusion