Hello,

The Chief Executive of the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuge, Heather Henare, is asking all women’s groups in New Zealand to urgently support Women’s Refuge in its call for the Government to intervene immediately to help a New Zealand woman and her two children.

Representations have been made to the Government on this case previously, but the response has been that processes must be allowed to follow their course.

However, Heather says it has reached a critical point where there are now very serious fears for the lives of the woman and her children.

All three are New Zealand citizens, and the woman is desperate to leave her abusive husband in Bangladesh and return to New Zealand. She holds very real fears for the safety of herself and her children, aged 13 and 7.

After arduous lengthy battles, the woman has now gained the required Visas to leave Bangladesh, but is stuck there until she can get Visas to enter India.

Her husband is aware she may leave soon, and his threats have stepped up greatly.

Heather is calling on all women’s groups to make representations to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, urging him to intervene in the case immediately and ensure the woman and her children reach safety in New Delhi as soon as possible. wpeters (at) ministers.govt.nz or 04-470-6561.

Your support in this is extremely important and would be very gratefully received. Please also forward this to any other contacts or networks you believe would be helpful.

Many thanks.

Catherine (on behalf of Heather, who is currently in Christchurch)


Catherine Delore
Communications Adviser
National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges
media (at) refuge.org.nz