Victims of 'honour' abuse remembered

Women who've lost their lives through so called honour killings will be remembered in the North West today.

Greater Manchester Police, Whalley Range High School and partners across Greater Manchester are supporting Britain's Lost Women, the first annual event to remember those women and men that have fallen victim to honour based abuse and forced marriages.

Today would have been Shafilea Ahmed's 29th birthday she was killed by her parents in Chester aged just 17.

As a mark of respect pupils at Whalley Range high school will release 250 balloons to remember her and other victims. They have also developed a short video. It will be played to an audience of students from across the south Manchester area.

In 2014 there were 41 Forced Marriage Protection Orders being issued by solicitors across Greater Manchester, this compares to 31 the previous year. In the same period there were 61 incidents recorded relating to forced marriage. Of these 97 per cent of all involved were women. Police have also recorded 76 incidents of honour based abuse.