Exclusive: ‘Perpetrators are not being held to account. The fall in prosecutions is massively concerning given more victims than ever are coming forward. It sends a message to communities that you can almost get away with it’ Convictions for so-called honour crimes perpetrated against women have plummeted in the past five years, The Independent can reveal, amid a nationwide crackdown aimed at bringing […]

Police are visiting airports across the country in an effort to prevent children being taken abroad for forced marriages. Operation Limelight is running over the school holiday period, from 15 July to 19 July, and will see police and Border Force officers visit airports across England and Wales. They will be training airline staff to […]

Two teenage sisters who feared being victims of female genital mutilation and forced marriage were only rescued after they contacted the Foreign Office begging for help. The teenagers were taken out Bethnal Green academy by their mother in July 2016 — 16 months after Shamima Begum and three classmates left the same school to join […]

STUDENTS at a sixth form have organised an evening of music to raise money for a women’s refuge charity. Alex Dunn, 17, of Yarm School, was inspired after a visit from Middlesbrough charity The Halo Project. The charity, which supports victims of forced marriage, FGM and domestic-based violence, spoke to the students about its work […]

Data from 11 frontline services shows forces failing to use legal powers, says group Police are “systematically failing” to protect victims of domestic and sexual violence, according to campaigners in the second super-complaint made to a national watchdog. The Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) has accused police forces of failing to use existing powers to deal […]

Sanaz (not her real name) was 13 years old when she left home to escape a forced marriage. Her story is not unusual for many young girls in London. Forced marriage became an offence in 2014 and since then there have been 491 incidents of it reported to the police in the capital. But the […]

Woman who cut three-year-old daughter also given two more years for other offences A mother has been jailed for 11 years after becoming the first person in Britain to be convicted of female genital mutilation (FGM) in a landmark case. The 37-year-old woman was found guilty of cutting her three-year-old daughter. A further two years were added […]

I had the honour yesterday of listening to Yasmin Khan. Yasmin is the founder and chief officer of the Middlesbrough based Halo Project Charitywhich supports victims of honour-based violence, forced marriages and female genital mutilation (FGM). As I listened to Yasmin, I was struck by the silence in the room. Silence, as we absorbed what we […]

Secondary school pupils in England will be taught about the dangers of female genital mutilation (FGM) by 2020. The new guidelines, to be announced on Monday, form part of the introduction of compulsory relationships and sex education classes in secondary schools. The new guidance says secondary schools should address the physical and emotional damage caused […]