Tall som iranske og kurdiske menneskerettsgrupper p Storbritannia har samlet inn viser at æresrelatert vold mot kvinner i minoritetsmiljøer økte med hele 57 % på bare ett år.

Men gruppene tror at de bare fanger opp toppen av isfjellet. De virkelige tallene er trolig langt høyere. Fire ganger så høye mener en representant for gruppen Karma Nirvana.

The number of women and girls in the UK suffering violence and intimidation at the hands of their families or communities is increasing rapidly, according to figures revealing the nationwide scale of «honour» abuse for the first time.

Statistics obtained under the Freedom of Information Act about such violence – which can include threats, abduction, acid attacks, beatings, forced marriage, mutilation and murder – show that in the 12 police force areas for which comparable data was available, reports went up by 47% in just a year.

Det er organisasjonen for iranske og kurdiske kvinners rettigheter som har samlet inn data fra politiet.

The 39 police forces that gave Ikwro figures recorded 2,823 incidents in 2010. Ikwro estimates that another 500 crimes in which police were involved were committed in the 13 force areas that did not provide data.

But this is likely to be only the tip of the iceberg, campaigners say, as so many incidents go unreported because of victims’ fears of recriminations.

Jasvinder Sanghera of victim support group Karma Nirvana said the real figure could be four times as high.

Hvorfor eksploderer tallene? Ikwro tror det skyldes at politiet er blitt flinkere, og at noen høyt profilerte saker i mediene gjør at flere tør anmelde. Men den største faktoren tror kampanjeleder Fionnuala Ni Mhurchu skyldes at barna når de vokser opp ønsker å treffe individuelle valg, og det utløser voldsomme motkrefter i familien og miljøene.

«They’re resisting abuses of their human rights such as forced marriage more and more,» she said. «And as a result they’re being subjected to this kind of violence. We hear from the community that this violence is on the increase.

«These figures are important because they demonstrate this is not a minor problem – it is a serious issue affecting thousands of people a year, many of whom will suffer high levels of abuse before they seek help. We want the government to develop a national strategy on honour-based violence that covers not just policing but also issues such as education and community cohesion.»

Dette er utrolig nok første gang såkalt æresrelatert vold mot kvinner er blitt systematisk samlet inn. Slik vold forstås som målbevisst og planlagt vold mot kvinner av et medlem av familien eller miljøet.

Tilfellet Banaz Mahmoud, en kurdisk kvinne på 20 som ble kvalt på ordre av faren og onkelen, fikk konsekvenser innen politiet for Mahmoud hadde gjentatte ganger forsøkt å varsle dem.

In 2006 Banaz Mahmod, a 20-year-old Kurd, was strangled on the orders of her father and uncle because they disapproved of her boyfriend. She had repeatedly told police her family were trying to kill her. The case led the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) to publish a new strategy in 2008, which highlighted the need to gauge the scale of the problem to improve police work and recommended that all English and Welsh forces introduce a mechanism to record the number of reports. There is no national guidance in Scotland.

Mangel på systematisk innsamling av data gjør at Ikwro føler Storbritannia som samfunn har mistet verdifull tid.

Ikwro said it was concerned that some forces were still not collecting the data in a consistent format, and called on Acpo and Acpo Scotland to help ensure this was done, and release statistics regularly.

Sanghera said complete data was crucial to prove the scale of the problem, adding that she feared momentum had been lost in recent years.