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 […]

A raft of measures to help tackle honour-based violence (HBV) and support hard-to-reach communities should be introduced, according to a new report by Manchester Metropolitan University researchers. The report calls on the government to create a new national framework to address HBV, alongside the appointment of a dedicated minister and new legal agreements with foreign […]

Agreements with foreign governments to investigate suspected killings abroad should be used to eradicate honour-based violence, campaigners have told MPs. Legal agreements governing the detection, investigation and prosecution of “honour killings” committed abroad could pave the way for families of UK victims to achieve justice and send a strong message to the perpetrators that they […]