The parents of Cheshire schoolgirl Shafilea Ahmed, the victim of a so-called honour killing, have been charged with her murder.

The sister of the Cheshire schoolgirl who went missing in 2003 saw their parents kill her, a court has heard.

At the start of their trial at Chester Crown Court, the jury heard Alesha Ahmed witnessed the killing.

Mr Edis said she drank bleach on the trip as her parents tried to bully her into an arranged marriage.

"She was a thoroughly Westernised young British girl of Pakistani origin. Her parents had standards which she was reluctant to follow."

The court heard Shafilea was taken to Pakistan by her family in 2003 in an attempt to force her into a marriage

There are at least 5,000 to 8,000 cases of forced marriage in England every year but it is impossible to know the full scale of the problem, according to the Home Office.

The estimate is contained in the official consultation paper published on Monday on whether making forced marriage a specific criminal offence will help better protect victims.

Read more @ The Guardian

Figures obtained by the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (Ikwro) showed at least 2,823 incidents of "honour-based" violence, with the highest number recorded in London.

The charity said the statistics do not give the full picture of the levels of "honour" violence in the UK , but are the best national estimate so far.

"'Honour' attacks are punishments usually carried out on women who have been accused of bringing shame on their family and in the past have included abductions, mutilations, beatings and murder," the report said.

"The number of incidents is significant, particularly when we consider the high levels of abuse that victims suffer before they seek help."

Its a story from the AFP where it is reported that there has been a 65% increase in the reported cases.

This is still the minority and often overlooked, but what stood out to me was that one of the reasons for the forced marriage was suspicion of homosexuality or bisexuality of the people who were then being forced into marriage. Is this the Eastender's effect?