Women and debt

Liz Barclay discusses the impact of debt on the lives of women

Men owe twice as much money as women, but women are more likely to struggle with debt and more likely to use ‘sub-prime’ credit – credit which is easier to access, but costs more in interest rates. The groups with particularly high levels of debt are young women, lone mothers, women whose relationships have broken down and black/mixed race women.

More women are also more likely to use credit than men and recent research shows that 1 in 10 are using over 50 per cent of their salary to repay debt each month.

Shiulie Ghosh discusses with studio guest Liz Barclay the causes of shifting patterns of borrowing amongst women and the impact it has on their lives.

Fashion designer Mani Kohli

Shiulie Ghosh and fashion designer Mani Kohli

Mani Kohli is a pioneer of Indian fashion in the UK and has also worked on costumes for hit movies, such as Bend it like Beckham.

Having recognised that the UK Asian community were out of touch with Indian fashions, Mani began designing Indian clothing for the UK market and set up a tailoring unit in India to produce her designs.

The Khubsoorat brand was launched at a fashion show in London to an audience of 28,000 people and to great acclaim. Wholesale orders quickly followed but success was short-lived when Mani’s divorce came through in 1987, leaving her with debts of £30,000.

Forced to down-size her operations, Mani sent her children back to India and worked tirelessly to overcome the debt. By 1993 Mani had re-built the business to incorporate two stores in London and a tailoring unit in India.

Shiulie went to visit her in her flagship shop in London.

Poetic Pilgrimage

Poetic Pilgrimage – Sukina and Muneera

Poetic Pilgrimage are a young hip hop act with a message. Sukina and Muneera were both brought up in Bristol in the UK and formed the group seven years ago.

Sukina started her musical career by singing, then started writing poetry and later, rhymes. Muneera went from mimicking rappers to writing her own lyrics and now they are both confident in performing their own material.
The girls rap about injustices they see around them, about their experiences as Muslims, and about poverty in black communities in Britain. When they formed the group neither had any interest in Islam, but inspired by Malcolm X and a Rebel Musik compilation they converted to Islam in 2005, just two weeks before the 7/7 London bombings.

They caught up with Shiulie when she was in London and performed on the show.

Watch part one of this episode of Everywoman on YouTube.

Watch part two of this episode of Everywoman on YouTube.

This episode of Everywoman aired from Friday December 28, 2007 at the following times GMT:

Friday: 1130, 2230
Saturday: 0830
Sunday: 0630
Monday: 0930, 1930
Tuesday: 0530
Wednesday: 0230, 0730
Friday: 0600   

---

To contact us click on ‘Send your feedback’ at the top of the page

Watch Al Jazeera English programmes on YouTube

Join our debates on the Your Views page