On Wednesday 30th September night Channel 4 will be broadcasting arguably the most important television programme of 2015- unveiling investigations on forced marriage and so called honour crime in Britain's ethnic minority community.
On the wake of Nadia Menaz's inquest in Oldham, Jasvinder Sanghera, founder of a charity that offers helplines and refuge women escaping from forced marriages has called on Ofsted inspectors to focus on the issue when visiting schools where girls may be at risk.
Campaigner Jasvinder Sanghera, who set up the charit Karma Nirvana, told the Observer: “Education is at the heart of prevention. We would like this abuse to form part of the Ofsted framework as a safeguarding issue. We need inspectors to be trained to identify how schools are safeguarding children at risk of forced marriage.”
Sanghera, who recently won the Asian Achievers Awards for Community Service, said there should also be a much tougher system of penalties to ensure that all public bodies covered by the statutory guidelines on forced marriage, introduced in 2008, are responding properly.
She added: “This goes across all religions, not just Islam. That counter-message has to be in school: you have to get into education. Young people, not just those affected but their friends, have got to hear that this is against the law in Britain.
“It should be mandatory in schools. Child protection is an issue for all children. Somehow when it’s about these issues it gets watered down. We are treating it as if it’s cultural – we don’t want to offend people – and that is wrong.”
The new documentary follows a 26-year old woman, Ruhksana, turning to the police for help after fleeing from her father who attacked her simply for seeing her boyfriend.
The film also follows another woman, Sajida, who was forced into a marriage 16 years ago.
Among the officers seen dealing with ‘honour’ cases is Detective Inspector Tanya Kitchen who, with her team, try to find evidence that the victims are telling the truth despite families who try to keep it secret.
One of her cases centres on a forced marriage said to have put 15 children at risk.
Across Manchester there have been 239 reported incidents of honour based abuse and forced marriage although, as families often try to hide the truth.
Honour crime came to public prominence in 2009 following the murder of Warrington teenager Shafelia Ahmed. Her parents killed their ‘westernised’ teenage daughter because they believed she had brought shame on the family. They were only brought to justice in 2013
