A London based women’s charity has launched a campaign to raises awareness of forced marriages.

JAN Trust deals with issues concerning minority communities and migrants and has launched ‘Mujboor’ which means ‘forced’ in Urdu.

The campaign will be piloted initially in Slough and eventually extended to other parts of the UK.

Forced marriage is an issue that is widespread across all communities, however statistics show that the majority of victims come from a South Asian background.

FCO Forced Marriage Unit data shows that 64% of forced marriage cases related to Pakistani victims, 15% related to Bangladeshi victims and 8% related to Indian victims.

Choosing Slough because of its dense Pakistani and Asian population, JAN Trust aims to reach out and offer practical advice and support to educate and prevent this continued inhumane cultural practice.

Holding a series of workshops, the aim of this campaign is to reach out both to the youth and the elderly.

JAN Trust hopes that the workshops will increase awareness amongst the youth and highlight the support available to them as well as acting as an educational tool for mothers to ensure that their daughters will not end up being victims of a forced marriage.

Respected Imams are supporting the project by strengthening the message that forced marriages are not permitted in Islam. They will also tackle the use of religion as an excuse for abuse.

Saba Rana a Pakistani female resident of Slough said: “What JAN Trust is doing really fills the gap that is most needed for the Asian women of Slough. There are many misconceptions and confusion around issues of marriage in Islam with many unaware of the Islamic stance against forced marriages.

"What we need to do is to do educate the community from a grassroots level and this is precisely what JAN Trust is doing.”

The campaign idea was founded by Sajda Mughal, Project Manager at JAN Trust who is also part of the Foreign Commonwealth Office’s Forced Marriage Unit Partnership Board.

She has said: “We decided to launch this campaign specifically targeting these women because of previous consultations we carried out and the number of Asian and Pakistani women who approach JAN Trust for advice and help on the issue of forced marriages.

"We want to raise awareness on this inhumane act and educate them about their rights. At the same time we want mothers to be able to support their daughters by giving them correct information which clearly states that a forced marriage is not an act permitted by Islam.

"Changing behaviours and attitudes that lead to the abuse must be done at a local level and it is a project such as ‘Mujboor’ that will make a difference”.