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Using AI to investigate publicly available documents on violence prevention

 

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly applied in public health, yet their use for analysing fragmented, multi-sectoral policy landscapes remains underdeveloped. Many applications have focused on service delivery, such as AI-powered chatbots, data surveillance and monitoring, and tracking social media interactions for emerging risks, with less attention paid to how AI might support policy analysis. This is especially true for the violence prevention sector, where AI is gaining traction as a solution for triaging help-seeking calls, detecting threatening messages, predicting conflict and improving police data, but not for understanding the policy landscape.

Policy responses to violence are undergoing scrutiny in the UK, coinciding with the recent publication of an updated cross-government strategy addressing violence against women and girls. This renewed focus places increased demands on researchers and policymakers to rapidly synthesise large and fragmented bodies of policy evidence spanning multiple sectors and both local and national government. Traditional approaches to policy review formed around a wholly manual approach may struggle to meet these demands within policy-relevant timeframes.

This research, an exploratory, proof-of-concept case study, aimed to describe the development and preliminary exploration of an AI-enabled tool designed to synthesise evidence from violence-related policy documents in the UK. The team was led by VISION Research Fellow Dr Darren Cook and inlcuded several members from the wider VISION consortium, Dr Elizabeth Cook, Kimberly Cullen, Professor Sally McManus, Professor Gene Feder and Professor Mark Bellis. 

For their article, Artificial intelligence in critical synthesis of public health responses to violence: A novel application to UK violence prevention policy, the team compiled a corpus of publicly available UK policy and strategy documents on violence (N = 343) through expert review, manual searches of government and third sector organisation websites, and automated web scraping.

Then, they used the corpus to train an existing AI framework and deployed it through a question-answer interface. Stakeholders working in violence prevention (academics, practitioners in specialist services and government officials) were invited to pose natural-language questions about violence policy and consider the system’s utility and the usefulness of its outputs. Their feedback indicated that the AI generated reports were well-grounded in the underlying source documents. Syntheses aligned closely with the documents in the tool, and the inclusion of document references and page-level citations supported credibility assessments. Corpus coverage statistics were considered particularly helpful when judging the robustness of responses. 

This research contributes by documenting the early application of an AI-enabled tool designed to support exploratory policy analysis. The team illustrates an emerging analytic capability and its potential role within policy-oriented research workflows. By demonstrating how a document-grounded, closed-domain AI system can be used to interrogate policy framings and identify potential siloes, this work addresses a gap in current public health applications of AI, specifically in the context of violence prevention.

To access the VISION AI tool to ask your own questions about violence prevention: VISION: Violence, Health & Society  

To download the paper: Artificial intelligence in critical synthesis of public health responses to violence: A novel application to UK violence prevention policy

To cite: Cook, D., Cook, E., Cullen, K., Zachos, K., McManus, S., Feder, G., Bellis, M., Maiden, N. Artificial intelligence in critical synthesis of public health responses to violence: A novel application to UK violence prevention policy. Science Direct (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-026-00272-2

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Reforms to British policing: Does performance equal progress?

 

 

Reflections on performance and productivity markers in the 2026 police reforms white paper

 

By Mattie Jones, PhD student, Violence & Society Centre, City St George’s University of London

In January, the British government released the white paper ‘From local to national: a new model for policing,’ outlining sweeping proposed changes to the police in England and Wales. To date, the media has primarily focused on the proposed National Police Service (NPS), calling it the “British FBI.” While the creation of the NPS is a major section of the paper, it is simply one piece of a much larger effort to reform British policing in a new and developing, post-Casey Review era. 

As a policing researcher and former United States police officer, what gave me pause when analysing the proposals were the pervasive underlying themes of improving productivity and tracking performance. Alongside the white paper, the Home Office introduced the Police Performance Framework. This framework sets out performance metrics that clarify parameters of success and identify areas for improvement. While performance metrics are useful for informing evidence-based policing, elements of this framework appear to lack specific direction on how forces will achieve the objectives, and it does not properly contextualise the desired outcomes that coincide with the numeric change. 

An example of this from the framework is to ‘increase the volume of crimes’ where a suspect receives VAWG-related charges. While commendable, goals like this might lend themselves to target-driven enforcement.  Officers may feel pressure to chase targets and demonstrate productivity, which could lead to unnecessary minor arrests without actually reducing serious crime or benefitting victims. In 2015 the Home Office interrogated issues of target chasing, directly attributing it to mis-recording crimes and shifting efforts to minor or ‘volume crime’ to meet metrics.  The proposed framework, combining a focus on performance indicators and a prioritisation of productivity, raises similar warning signs for a policing environment inclined toward quota-driven enforcement. 

Quotas are a loaded term in police practices, and it’s important to not over conflate all performance metrics with quotas. Police quotas combine four elements: formal channels and/or informal mechanisms of implementation, quantification of an acceptable threshold, requirement to meet the threshold, and negative action upon failure to meet the threshold (Ossei-Owusu, 2021). Policing in a quota-based system leads to officers and forces focusing on meeting metrics which may be at odds with discretion and focusing on positive outcomes for the public (Ossei-Owusu, 2021). These, along with issues of discrimination, are why many scholars, practitioners, and the public push back against their implementation (Ossei-Owusu, 2021). With the introduction of the Police Performance Framework, the Police Performance Dashboard for data monitoring between forces, a Tiered Performance System, and a “more active, ‘hands on’ Home Office,” the white paper outlines an environment ripe for quota-driven enforcement.  

The line between creating quality metrics that provide data to drive improvements and encouraging forces to adopt quotas or enforcement targets is very fine.  To strike the right balance, the Home Office will need to take care and offer specificity when operationalising the objectives and quantifying the outcomes of these proposed changes. Quality data on policing and performance is necessary, but we must be cautious that we don’t let the pursuit of quantification and measurement lend itself to ill-advised practice. 

For further information, please contact Mattie at mattie.jones@citystgeorges.ac.uk

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VISION responds to Parliamentary, government & non-government consultations

Consultation, evidence and inquiry submissions are an important part of our work at VISION. Responding to Parliamentary, government and non-government organisation consultations ensures that a wide range of opinions and voices are factored into the policy decision making process. As our interdisciplinary research addresses violence and how it cuts across health, crime and justice and the life course, we think it is important to take the time to answer any relevant call and to share our insight and findings to support improved policy and practice. We respond as VISION, the Violence & Society Centre, and sometimes in collaboration with others. Below are the links to our published responses and evidence from June 2022.

  1. UK Parliament – International Development Committee – Inquiry: Women, Peace and Security. Our submission was published in March 2026
  2. UK Parliament – Public Bill Committee – Call for evidence: Crime and Policing Bill. Our submission was published in 2025
  3. UK Parliament (Library) – POSTNote – Approved Work: Violence Against Women and Girls in schools and among children & young people. Two VISION reports were referenced in their POSTNote published in August 2025
  4. UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Tackling Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG). Our submission was published in April 2025
  5. UK Parliament – House of Lords Select Committee on Social Mobility Policy – Call for Evidence: Exploring how education and work opportunities can be better integrated to improve social mobility across the UK. Our submission was published in 2025
  6. UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: Community Cohesion. Our submission was published in February 2025
  7. UK Parliament – Call for evidence on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Our submission was published in February 2025
  8. UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Use of Artificial Intelligence in Government. Our submission was published in January 2025
  9. UK Parliament – Public Accounts Committee – Inquiry: Tackling Homelessness. Our submission with Dr Natasha Chilman was published in January 2025. See the full report
  10. Home Office – Legislation consultation: Statutory Guidance for the Conduct of Domestic Homicide Reviews. Our submission was published on the VISION website in July 2024
  11. UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The rights of older people. Our submission was published in November 2023
  12. UK Parliament  – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The impact of the rising cost of living on women. Our submission was published in November 2023
  13. UK Parliament – Women and Equalities Committee – Inquiry: The escalation of violence against women and girls. Our submission published in September 2023
  14. Home Office – Legislation consultation: Machetes and other bladed articles: proposed legislation (submitted response 06/06/2023). Government response to consultation and summary of public responses was published in August 2023
  15. Welsh Government – Consultation: National action plan to prevent the abuse of older people. Summary of the responses published in April 2023
  16. Race Disparity Unit (RDU) – Consultation: Standards for Ethnicity Data (submitted response 30/08/2022). Following the consultation, a revised version of the data standards was published in April 2023
  17. UK Parliament – The Home Affairs Committee – Call for evidence: Human Trafficking. Our submission was published in March 2023
  18. UN expert – Call for evidence: Violence, abuse and neglect in older people. Our submission was published in February 2023
  19. UK Parliament – The Justice and Home Affairs Committee – Inquiry: Family migration. Our submission was published in September 2022 and a report was published following the inquiry in February 2023
  20. Home Office – Consultation: Controlling or Coercive behaviour Statutory Guidance. Our submission was published in June 2022

For further information, please contact us at VISION_Management_Team@city.ac.uk

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Gendered violence and epistemic injustice in Iran: women’s civic aspirations for justice

Iranian women perceive themselves as active participants in overcoming barriers that have historically silenced them. Their perspectives on eliminating violence against women (VAW), with a particular focus on how they challenge the structural and epistemic injustices that underpin such violence, are analysed in a recent publication, Gendered violence and epistemic injustice in Iran: women’s civic aspirations for justice.

In their article, Dr Nadia Aghtaie (University of Bristol), Dr Ladan Hashemi (VISION Senior Research Fellow at City St George’s University of London), and Fatemeh Babakhani (Mehre Shams Afarid, Non-Governmental Domestic Violence Organisation for Women and Children, Urmia, Iran), draw on a qualitative, purposive voluntary sample via an anonymous Instagram survey, chosen for its accessibility and reach among women and girls in Iran. A total of 453 respondents aged 16–59 answered the open-ended question, “Write your views and suggestions regarding violence against women and how to eliminate it,” and their responses were thematically analysed. While this method enabled wide participation, it also introduced likely sampling bias towards internet users—particularly younger, urban, and tech-savvy participants.

Participants identified a wide range of violence, including emotional, physical, sexual, coercive control, and street harassment. However, the most prominent themes that emerged were the need for raising awareness, among both women and men, about what constitutes violence, and the demand for comprehensive legal reforms to address and prevent VAW.

Many responses indicated a desire to reshape cultural and religious norms that have historically contributed to women’s marginalisation. The participants’ narratives highlighted how women’s experiences of violence are frequently dismissed, minimised, or rendered unintelligible in dominant public discourses. By articulating their understandings of violence and proposing solutions, these women actively resisted such injustice and asserted themselves as credible knowers.

Overall, respondents acknowledged the intersecting structural, cultural and religious norms that perpetuate VAW in Iran. Yet their responses were not solely diagnostic; they were also future-oriented and hopeful. They strongly believed that education, awareness-raising and legal reforms are catalysts for change and emphasised the right to be heard and valued as credible sources on their views on VAW.

To download the paper: Gendered violence and epistemic injustice in Iran: women’s civic aspirations for justice

To cite: Aghtaie, N., Hashemi, L. & Babakhani, F. Gendered violence and epistemic injustice in Iran: women’s civic aspirations for justice. Humanit Soc Sci Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-06952-3

For further information: Please contact Ladan at ladan.hashemi@citystgeorges.ac.uk

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VISION researcher receives funding for secondary data analysis

Dr Annie Bunce, Research Fellow at VISION, received funding from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy for her application, Exploring resilience, self-empowerment and wellbeing outcomes of women referred to specialist domestic abuse counselling services.

With the support of Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa, VISION co-Deputy Director, and in collaboration with Sarah Davidge, Head of Membership, Research and Evaluation at Women’s Aid, Annie will investigate whether and how receiving counselling from a specialist domestic abuse (DA) support service is associated with change in wellbeing.

She will analyse quantitative data from national DA charity, Women’s Aid, which includes information on various aspects of victim-survivors’ wellbeing at the start, during, and end of accessing services. Data analysis will reveal whether victim-survivors who receive counselling experience greater improvements in their wellbeing than those who receive other community-based services.

Annie will also examine whether counselling may be associated with greater wellbeing gains for some groups than others, and whether change in wellbeing is associated with the type/s of abuse experienced and other services received.

The analysis will show which factors influence the effect of counselling on changes in wellbeing the most, and which wellbeing indicators are most improved following counselling.

Findings will be shared via an academic report, blog, policy briefing, webinar and conference presentations.

The research will help to improve understanding of the relationship between counselling and wellbeing in the context of DA, feed into Women’s Aid’s ongoing work to ensure they are measuring the things most important to victim-survivors when it comes to their wellbeing and promote consistency in measuring wellbeing-related outcomes across DA services more widely.

Please contact Annie at annie.bunce@citystgeorges.ac.uk for further information.

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Non-intimate femicide in England and Wales: A ‘continua’ approach

A key pledge in the Labour Party’s 2024 election manifesto was to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) over the next ten years. It is well known that violence and abuse experienced by women and girls incorporates a multitude of contexts outside of (as well as within) family and intimate relationships, therefore, any strategy aimed at significantly reducing VAWG will need to extend beyond the domestic sphere, including lethal violence. Despite important advances in domestic homicide (DH) prevention in recent years, 55 per cent of adult women (16+ years) killed across England and Wales were not categorized as DH.

Dr Caroline Miles (University of Manchester) and VISION Co-Investigator Dr Elizabeth A Cook (City St George’s University of London) specifically address the killing of women and girls outside of family and intimate relationships, referred to here as ‘non-intimate femicide’ (NIF), in their recently published article, Non-intimate femicide in England and Wales: A ‘continua’ approach.

There have been numerous high-profile killings of women and girls by male strangers in the UK over the past few year (for example, Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa, sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, and three girls, Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar killed in Southport). These cases attracted high levels of public attention as is often the outcome of intense media interest in particular femicides. Attracting less media attention are the killings of women and girls by men with whom they are acquainted but not intimately connected to (or in some cases, not recognized as such). There is currently a dearth of data, knowledge and policy aimed at preventing NIF, a problem which Caroline and Elizabeth strive to redress.

The research underpinning this article derives from the first exclusive study of NIF in England and Wales, presenting a statistical analysis of the victim, suspect and incident characteristics for all cases involving women who were killed by non-intimate partners or family members between 2002 and 2022. Using Homicide Index data for England and Wales (2002–2022), the researchers provide original insight into the victim, perpetrator and incident characteristics in NIF cases, and reveal important differences between intimate and NIF, as well as high levels of missing or poorly recorded data. They argue for a more accurate recording of NIF, alongside a ‘continua thinking’ approach to femicide research, which documents the killing of all women and girls across a range of intimate and non-intimate contexts. Caroline and Elizabeth write that by adopting a ‘continua of violence’ approach to femicide, which recognizes how ‘gender links violence at different points on a scale’, a nuanced and inclusive understanding of femicide can be developed that is not restricted to those categorized as ‘intimate’ or ‘domestic’.

If the current UK Labour Government are to succeed in their 2024 pledge to halve VAWG over a ten-year period, it is crucial that they focus on the whole continuum of lethal VAWG, including those killed by strangers and people known to them in some capacity who are not intimate partners or family members. NIF accounts for substantial proportions of female homicide victimization and although a key focus in recent years has been on learning more about the contexts of DH, the pathways leading to and circumstances surrounding the killing of women outside of intimate and kin relationships remain to a large extent unknown. 

Recommendation

Recent work to improve the recording of femicide and measure sex/gender motivations acknowledges some non-intimate contexts of femicide; however, in order to fully understand the gendered contexts of NIF, it is essential to improve the quality of data recording for all forms of femicide and to mainstream sex/gender motivation data collection across the whole continuum of femicide.

To download the paper: Non-intimate femicide in England and Wales: A ‘continua’ approach

To cite: Caroline Miles, Elizabeth A Cook, Non-intimate femicide in England and Wales: A ‘continua’ approach, The British Journal of Criminology, 2026;, azag005, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azag005

For further information: Please contact Elizabeth (Lizzie) at elizabeth.cook@citystgeorges.ac.uk

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Re-imagining responses to gender-based violence

 

Dr Olumide Adisa

VISION Co-Investigator, Dr Olumide Adisa, has written a personal blog, Behind the book, highlighting her journey behind the scenes writing, compiling, and publishing her first edited book, Tackling Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence: A Systems Approach.

In the blog, Olumide discusses her drive to have a meaningful impact in the fight against gender-based violence. Her enthusiasm, advocacy and growing expertise for systems theory and complex systems approaches combined with ongoing work across different systems and with various collaborators led to the project and was an invaluable experience.

For further information, please contact Olumide at olumide.adisa@citystgeorges.ac.uk

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“United to End Sextortion”: Launching a New Animation for the 16 Days of Activism

By Dr Nadia Aghtaie, Associate Professor in Criminology, University of Bristol

Sextortion is one of the fastest-growing – and least understood – forms of abuse facing young people today. Yet it is still rarely discussed in schools, families or policy debates.

Our new animation, launched as part of the UN 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, aims to start those conversations in a way that is accessible, sensitive and grounded in research.

What do we mean by “sextortion”?

We use sextortion to describe situations where someone threatens to share explicit, intimate or embarrassing sexual images without consent in order to force a person to do something – often to send more images, carry out sexual acts, hand over money, or provide other favours (see Ray & Henry 2024; Wolak et al. 2017).

There is still no consistent terminology. Different organisations talk about “image-based sexual abuse”, “online blackmail”, “sexual extortion”, or “sexual corruption”. This lack of shared language makes it harder for young people, parents, teachers and professionals to recognise what is happening and to know where to turn for help.

Why a sextortion animation for young people?

Sextortion doesn’t affect all young people in the same way. Research by NSPCC points to gendered patterns in both who is targeted and what is demanded: boys are often targeted by organised cybercrime gangs demanding money, while girls are more likely to face pressure from people they know – peers, partners or ex-partners – to share more nudes or agree to unwanted sexual acts. Whatever the context, sextortion can be devastating, combining sexual abuse, psychological control, financial exploitation and, for many, intense shame and fear.

These are also experiences that are very hard to talk about. Shame, fear of being blamed, worries about family reactions or community honour, and concerns around immigration status can all create silence. Animation gives us a different way in: it lets us tell a story that feels recognisable without identifying any individual, show clearly that victims are not to blame, signpost routes to support, and open up honest but non-graphic conversations in classrooms, youth groups and families. By launching this animation during the 16 Days of Activism, we place sextortion firmly within global efforts to end violence against women and girls, while recognising that boys and gender-diverse young people are affected too.

From Iran-focused campaign to a wider audience

The initial animations (Coercive Control, Economic Abuse, Active Bystander and Technology Facilitated Abuse) grew out of a wider project on violence against women and girls (VAWG) that began with a focus on Iran. The aim was to design a research-based, evidence-informed animated campaign, United to End Violence Against Women and Girls, to raise awareness of different forms of VAWG and to support intergenerational conversations that might help reduce violence over time.

Although the early work centred on Iranian contexts and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, our previous studies, together with conversations across NGO networks and a school in the UK, quickly showed that these issues are relevant beyond national borders.

Collaboration, creativity and cultural sensitivity

The animations have been funded by VISION Consortium and Bristol ESRC Accelerator Award and shaped by a multidisciplinary team including academic colleagues from City St George University (Dr Ladan Hashemi & Professor Sally McManus); the University of Bristol (Associate Professor Nadia Aghtaie); Leeds Beckett University (Dorreh Khatibi-Hill); Goldsmiths (Dr Atlas Torbati) and University for the Creative Arts (Professor Birgitta Hosea). We have worked closely with two NGOs as advisory partners and an animation team:

  • An Iran-based NGO working with women from diverse backgrounds and running specialist programmes for survivors of gender-based violence. We do not name the organisation here for security reasons, as this could limit how widely the animations can be shared.
  • IKWRO, a London-based charity supporting women and girls from Middle Eastern and North African communities who are facing “honour”-based abuse, forced marriage and other forms of VAWG.
  • “Resilient Anonymous Creators”: An animation team based in Iran. For security reasons, we cannot name them publicly. The name “resilient anonymous creators” is a reflection of both their creativity and the structural barriers they are forced to navigate. We are deeply grateful for their courage, commitment and artistry; this work is only possible because of them.

Ultimately, our goal is simple: to give young people, and the adults who support them, a starting point – a shared language, a shared story and a shared commitment to challenging sextortion and other forms of digital-based abuse wherever they occur.

Link to Women’s Research Hub YouTube Channel 

Link to Women’s Research Hub Instagram Account  

For further information, please contact Ladan at ladan.hashemi@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Confronting ‘Honour‘-Based Abuse: Reflections on IKWRO’s 2025 Conference

By Ladan Hashemi, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Health and Health Policy at City St George’s University of London  

VISION was proud to sponsor their second collaboration with IKWRO (Women’s Rights Organisation) and host their annual conference. This year’s theme was Confronting ‘Honour‘-Based Abuse (HBA) in Policy, Technology, and Collective Action and held at City St George’s, University of London on 22nd October 2025. 

The event brought together around a hundred survivor advocates, academics, frontline practitioners, and policymakers to critically examine urgent responses to HBA in today’s rapidly evolving world. 

The conference featured three panels examining the flagship “Crime, Not Culture” campaign, the growing role of technology and media in shaping harm, and the resilience and leadership of survivors and community advocates. Throughout the day, speakers and attendees returned to a central question: How do we ensure HBA is recognised and treated as a serious crime rather than dismissed or misunderstood as ‘culture’?

Narratives, Evidence, and the Power of Speaking Out

The day opened with powerful survivor testimonies – deeply personal accounts of control, coercion and systemic failures. These stories underscored the  need for meaningful training across policing, healthcare and the family courts. As one panel chair reflected, “It’s not that the government lacks the budget. It’s about priorities. Women from ethnic minorities are not a priority.” The consequences of this neglect, she noted, echo across public services, placing a substantial and avoidable burden on institutions such as the NHS and the police.

Scholars challenged common assumptions about “culture” and emphasised the importance of evidence-informed policy. Their discussions invited the audience to interrogate the ways colonial narratives have shaped understandings of honour, family, and gender norms. 

Technology, Media, and Emerging Threats

The second panel explored the fast-changing digital landscape. Speakers examined how technology-facilitated abuse, sextortion, online misogyny, and surveillance increasingly interact with HBA. The panel highlighted that marginalised women and girls often face compounded risks: gendered, racialised, and technologically amplified. 

Two short animations produced by the Women’s Research Hub team in collaboration with VISION, on HBA and sextortion were screened during the session. These visual narratives helped ground the discussion in the lived realities of young people navigating online harms – showing not just the risks, but also how digital tools can be used to educate, empower, and support.

One speaker captured the spirit of the day: “It seems it wasn’t enough to be oppressed by patriarchal systems; now we also face the same inequalities reflected back at us through AI and social media.” 

Collective Action and Pathways to Change 

The final panel focused on resilience and community action. Speakers discussed the importance of survivor leadership, culturally informed practice, and training that centres real voices rather than “death by PowerPoint.” Their reflections highlighted that effective change relies on collaboration between organisations, communities, and those with lived experience. 

The conference closed with remarks from Jess Phillips MP, who reinforced the urgent need to strengthen protections and ensure survivors are heard and believed. Her contribution was a fitting conclusion to a day centred on solidarity, listening, and the collective responsibility to challenge harmful practices and support those affected.

One of the quilts created by survivors of ‘honour’-based abuse and IKWRO

A Day of Reflection and Resolve 

The event showcased what happens when survivors, activists, academics, and practitioners come together with a shared purpose. Across panels, one message was clear: understanding and preventing ‘Honour‘-Based Abuse requires research, policy attention, resources, and above all, a commitment to centring the voices of those most affected. 

VISION was proud to support this important gathering for a second time sparking further conversations about how evidence and collaboration can drive meaningful, long-lasting change.

Key to the event was the organisation and support of VISION’s Knowledge Exchange Manager, Kimberly Cullen and the IKWRO conference organising committee. 

For further information, please contact Ladan at ladan.hashemi@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Photography supplied by IKWRO

New Animated Campaign Raises Awareness of ‘Honour’-Based Abuse

By Ladan Hashemi, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Health and Health Policy at City St George’s University of London  

A new animation created by the Women’s Research Hub in collaboration with VISION aims to shed light on ‘Honour’-Based Abuse (HBA), a pervasive form of violence targeting women and girls. Informed by research and survey data on violence against women in Iran, this is the fifth animation in the Hub’s series on gender-based violence (GBV). The survey underpinning this work was designed by Fatima Babakhani, CEO of the safe house Mehre Shams Afarid in Iran.

HBA is widespread both in Iran and globally. Studies indicate that thousands of women and girls in Iran experience coercion, forced marriage, and other forms of abuse in the name of “honour.” Globally, HBA affects communities across the Middle East, South Asia, North Africa, and diaspora populations worldwide, often remaining hidden due to social stigma and cultural justifications. While reliable statistics are difficult to obtain because of underreporting, research shows that the consequences are severe: psychological trauma, physical violence, and, in extreme cases, death. The Centre for Human Rights in Iran reported that in 2024 at least 179 women in Iran were killed — roughly a woman every two days — a significant proportion of them as a result of so-called ‘honour’ killings. 

The animation presents real-life narratives, capturing the lived experiences of women subjected to HBA. Through carefully constructed scenes, it depicts situations such as family-imposed restrictions on women’s clothing and mobility, threats, humiliation, forced and child marriage, and the devastating consequences of upholding “honour” through coercion, including physical violence and ‘honour’-based killings. 

Some of the impactful transcripts featured in the animation include: 

Forced marriage: “They said there had been too many rumours about her, so her family forced her to marry.”

‘Honour’– Based Killing: “His brothers came, one by one, saying: ‘You’ve protected your honour. You’ve spared us all the shame.”

The animation brings these testimonies to life with a sensitive and empathetic approach, allowing viewers to understand the psychological and social dynamics of HBA, as well as its human impact. It emphasises that ‘honour’ is never a justification for violence: “No one is another person’s ‘honour’. ‘Honour’ is lost when we turn to violence — not when a woman chooses to live her life on her own terms.” 

The campaign also provides clear guidance for bystanders and communities on how to respond: 

  1. Avoid judging others’ private lives — everyone has the right to make choices about their body, relationships, and lifestyle. 
  2. Support victims of HBA without blame, and do not leave them isolated. 
  3. Be mindful of language: words like “honour,” “shame,” and “purity” can reinforce harmful norms. 
  4. Do not share private information or images that could endanger someone. 
  5. Speak up if you believe someone is at risk and contact trusted organisations. 

The animation was produced in collaboration with animators in Iran, experts supporting women affected by HBA in Iran, Fatima Babakhani, and the UK-based NGO IKWRO, which supports victims of HBA in the UK. 

The research team included colleagues Dr Ladan Hashemi and Professor Sally McManus from City St George’s University of London; Associate Professor Nadia Aghtaie at the University of Bristol; Dr Atlas Torbati from Goldsmiths University; Professor Birgitta Hosea from the Animation Research Centre at the University for the Creative Arts; and Dorreh Khatibi-Hill from Leeds Beckett University. The project was funded by the UKPRP VISION Consortium and the ESRC Impact Acceleration Award at the University of Bristol.

The animation will be officially launched on the Women’s Research Hub Instagram page during the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV, providing an important opportunity to reach a global audience and raise awareness of HBA. Ladan and colleagues will also be discussing the campaign at a free lunchtime webinar on Monday, 8 December. For further information and to register for the Teams link, please see Webinar: Using animation to campaign against VAWG.

Previous animations in the series have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, narrated in multiple languages as well as subtitled, and it has been used in classrooms and at other events. We encourage its widespread use to improve awareness, and one animation in the series provides bystanders with potential strategies for safe intervention. 

By combining rigorous research, authentic survivor narratives, and creative storytelling, this animation series offers a powerful tool for raising awareness and driving action against GBV. It is a vital reminder that combating GBV requires both evidence-informed strategies and a commitment to amplifying the voices of those most affected. 

Link to Women’s Research Hub YouTube Channel 

Link to Women’s Research Hub Instagram Account  

For further information, please contact Ladan at ladan.hashemi@citystgeorges.ac.uk