Impact
Ultimately, Ahluwalia's case helped raise awareness of domestic violence in families of non-English speaking immigrants to Western countries, as well as changing the laws for domestic abuse victims in the United Kingdom.
Her case, known in British legal textbooks as R v Ahluwalia, changed the definition of the word 'provocation' in cases of battered women, so as to reclassify her crime as manslaughter instead of murder, and in the same year as her appeal, lead to the freeing of Emma Humphreys and Sarah Thornton.
Ahluwalia was honored in 2001 at the first Asian Women Awards in recognition of her "strength, personal achievements, determination and commitment" in helping to bring to light the subject of domestic violence.
She wrote an autobiography with co-author Rahila Gupta, Circle of Light.
Gita Sahgal made a film called Unprovoked for the British television investigative documentary program Despatches on the subject of Ahluwalia's experience.
The story was fictionalized in the film Provoked, which was screened at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Naveen Andrews played Deepak and Aishwarya Rai played the role of Ahluwalia. During the screening at Cannes, Ahluwalia sat next to Rai, holding her hand and sobbing during the most violent scenes.
Read more about this topic: Kiranjit Ahluwalia
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