A London service since 1989#
Ashiana Network has worked with women in London since 1989. Its services are women-only and are mainly used by women from South Asian, Turkish and Middle Eastern communities who have experienced, or are at risk of, violence against women and girls, including forced marriage, honour-based violence and female genital mutilation. It offers specialist advice and advocacy, short-term counselling, support groups, community outreach and training for professionals. Its website has pages in Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Turkish and Urdu.
Asking Ashiana for help#
You can contact Ashiana yourself by phone or email; its contact page says you do not need a referral form to ask for help. A webchat runs on weekdays, with hours that vary by day. Professionals referring someone use the advice, counselling or legal team forms on its Refer to us page, which also holds the court forms for female genital mutilation protection orders. Ashiana points out that the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is a separate service.
Its advice workers help women report to the police, take out injunctions, find refuge, claim benefits and secure housing. Its legal team is accredited by the immigration advice regulator at level 2 and helps women with insecure immigration status or no recourse to public funds, though applicants contribute to Home Office fees where they apply.
Three refuges for young women#
Ashiana's refuge page describes three schemes, all for South Asian, Turkish and Middle Eastern women aged 16 to 35:
- Kyra, eight bed spaces for women experiencing domestic or sexual violence or at risk of harmful practices;
- Saranaya, five bed spaces for women at risk of forced marriage;
- Zafina, eight bed spaces, also for women at risk of forced marriage.
Four bed spaces are set aside for women with no recourse to public funds. Residents can stay for up to two years, with support on legal, money and housing questions, and they agree not to have visitors or reveal where the refuge is.
A new name at 16 or 17#
Because Ashiana houses women from 16, its residents include some who cannot yet do everything an adult can. GOV.UK sets the age for writing your own deed poll at 16, so a resident of 16 or 17 can change her name that way with no parent involved, and the deed stays private. Enrolment is different: an adult enrolled deed poll is only for those aged 18 or over, and GOV.UK's route for anyone younger is the child's application, made by a parent or guardian. For a young woman who has left her family, the unenrolled deed is usually the only practical choice until she turns 18.
Two cautions carry over from refuge life. Any deed poll records an address, so ask staff which address to use rather than the refuge's own. And a witness should be an adult who neither lives with you nor is a close relative, since GOV.UK warns that some organisations reject such witnesses. Ashiana's information packs include the Forced Marriage Unit's survivor's handbook, whose section on names our Halo Project page summarises.
Further reading#
- Changing your name at 16 or 17: what you can do without a parent.
- Changing your name while living in a refuge: addresses, witnesses and timing.
- Changing your name if you are not a British citizen: visas and other passports.
- Charities that help after domestic abuse.
This page describes what Ashiana Network publishes on its website, read on 26 October 2026. Ashiana has not reviewed it, and listing it here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
