Karma Nirvana introduces National Day of Memory for honour killing victims with social campaign
Karma Nirvana, the UK charity that supports victims and survivors of forced marriage and honour-based abuse, has launched a social media campaign to build public awareness of the issue in Britain.
The launch of the campaign, created by Leo Burnett London, coincides with the charity's first National Day of Memory for victims of so-called honour killings on 14 July. The day is a result of a lobbying campaign led by the Karma Nirvana in partnership with Cosmopolitan magazine in January this year.
The rememberance date was chosen for 14 July because it would have been the 29th birthday of Shafilea Ahmed, the 17-year-old British girl who was suffocated by her parents with a plastic bag in an honour-based killing.
The social campaign aimed to use plastic in a more positive way by rebuilding and restoring Shafilea’s memory through the medium of 3D printing. A memorial bust of Shafilea was programmed to be revealed in response to peaks in public support behind the hashtag #RememberShafilea.
Leo Burnett’s work follows an earlier campaign for Karma Nirvana that included a special plastic promotional Cosmopolitan cover-wrap, complete with an image of a girl suffocating, that was used for a lobbying event at the Houses of Parliament.
Phillip Meyler and Darren Keff, the creative team at Leo Burnett London behind the idea explained the social campaign: “Having drawn on the potent truth of Shafilea’s death it was important to us to honour her with an authentic representation of who she was in life, beyond the ‘victim headshot’ everybody saw in the news.
"Having only 2D photos to work with, we liaised closely with Shafilea’s police case officer and her best friend Melissa to develop the 3D CGI CAD design used by the 3D printer to create an accurate memorial sculpture to honour her memory."
Supporters were able to witness the progress of the memorial via a feed on the Karma Nirvana website