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'Let's help end violence against women and girls'

Mousumi Bakshi & Katy Prickett
BBC News, Bedfordshire
Mousumi Bakshi/BBC Sara who has long dark hair, with a centre parting, pulled back from her face and falling over her shoulders. She is wearing a dark top. Behind her is hall in a school, with a piece of artwork.Mousumi Bakshi/BBC
The event tried to get as many young people involved as possible, including from other schools, because "they're the future and need to be heard", said Sara

A 16-year-old has helped organise a storytelling, art and poetry event to raise awareness of violence against women and girls.

Sara said she was inspired to do so because she felt young people's voices were being unheard in discussions about the issue.

"If we're talking about it, we can start resolving it and eventually, hopefully, this can be something no woman should have to experience," Sara said.

Expressions was held at Chalk Hills Academy in the Bedfordshire town.

Mousumi Bakshi/BBC A rectangular canvas which shows four young women. One of the women has a hand held over her mouth. Beneath the women are the words "Your silence won't protect them".Mousumi Bakshi/BBC
Sara said the group chose to use storytelling through art because "it breaks the boundaries"

The event included opportunities to learn about topics including healthy relationships, recognising red flags and how to support others.

Sara said she was "lucky enough not to have experienced" violence "but I know people who have, and their stories make me feel I need to be more protective".

One of her friends was walking home from school on a winter's night and the only route available to her, which she had to use every day, was an unlit tunnel.

She passed a group of men and two started to follow her, Sara said.

Mousumi Bakshi/BBC Three canvases on easels in a school hall. The first on the right is the most in focus and has the words "You're being dramatic" overlaid on a woman's face.Mousumi Bakshi/BBC
"We want the youth to start talking to their family and friends about violence against women - it's one of those [issues] where we don't want to talk about it"

"She was so scared but she had to use [the tunnel]... she called her mother, who was able to pick her up on the main road, but she told me she feared for her life," Sara explained.

"We want the youth to start talking to their family and friends about violence against women – it's one of those [issues] where we don't want to talk about it."

Mousumi Bakshi/BBC Montell Neufville standing in a school hall which has artwork and people behind him. He has glasses with darker lenses and is wearing a black T-shirt.Mousumi Bakshi/BBC
Montell Neufville wants men and boys to "take a responsibility to ensure that all females are respected today and in the future"

Montell Neufville, a police ethics adviser, said: "I truly believe men have to be allies. We have to listen to females at every age and accept the way females think and fear... is sometimes down to how [men] act – or don't act."

The chair of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire police scrutiny panel also referenced social media influencer Andrew Tate, who grew up in Luton.

He and his brother are under criminal investigation in three countries. They deny all wrongdoing.

"We need to get the thousands of people who actually don't subscribe to those negative narratives he promotes and hold up our hands and say there are lots of people who are respectable, who do value females," added Mr Neufville.

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