By Charlotte McKenzie: A Staffordshire performing arts group is raising awareness of ‘honour’ violence and forced marriages.

The Borderlines Theatre Group are touring the county with a play based on testimonies of real women who have been through the issues. The performance will be followed by a workshop where they can discuss key cases.

The term ‘honour violence’ means abuse of someone, usually a woman, because they are deemed to have brought about dishonour to the woman’s family, clan or community.

The project opened with a conference on the March 4 at the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Jasvinder Sanghera – author of the autobiography ‘Shame’, the story of her escape from a forced marriage – is involved with the project and says Staffordshire is one of the top five areas across the UK with issues on honour crimes:

The conference included  several speakers including Nazir Afzal who is the director, Crown prosecution Service London-South and recognised as one of the one-hundred most influential Muslims and Asians in the UK:

It also included Detective Inspector Brent Hyatt from Metropolitan Police who stressed how important this project is to educate society.

“What we all have a duty to do is raise awareness,  it’s not just an issue for police, its an issue that cuts across health, social servies, health and education. It’s important that we all share our experiences,” he said.

The project is called All Our Daughters? and will tour schools, colleges and community groups throughout Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire from until April.