The campaign came to fruition in January 2015, when Cosmopolitan magazine launched a mocked-up magazine in Shafilea Ahmed’s memory. Utilising the plastic wrapping commonly found around women’s magazines, the cover shows a black-and-white, blurred portrait of an Asian girl, the girl’s hands raised as though she is trying to break through the wrapping.
The magazine “encourages readers to rip open the plastic and free her.” Cosmopolitan used the cover, distributed at an event held at the House of Lords, to lobby the government for a change in law that will help prevent future deaths of this nature. It’s a remarkable example of a commercial publication, not known for its social campaigning, using the format of the glossy, off-the-shelf magazine to make a searingly visual political point.
The cover led to Parliament declaring an annual national day of memory on July 14th, Shafilea Ahmed’s Birthday.
A seven-second film was made to accompany the issue, showing the plastic covering torn free to reveal the portrait of Shafilea. Cosmopolitan posted the video on their Vine feed with the words: “Shafilea Ahmed was suffocated by her parents in front of her siblings. Share to end the suffering of #honourkillings”
Louise Court, director of editorial strategy and content at Hearst Magazines UK, who acted as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan during the campaign, tells BJP: “We are incredibly proud of our campaign to call for a day of remembrance for the victims of honour killings. More than 100,000 people have supported the campaign, run in partnership with the charity Karma Nirvana. The mocked up Cosmopolitan cover, created by Leo Burnett, was used for promotional use to raise awareness about women who have been killed or abused in the name of family honour. The cover was inspired by the murder of Shafilea Ahmed, the 17-year-old who was suffocated by her parents in 2003, and has culminated in the 14 July being declared as a Day of Memory to honour British victims of this horrific crime.”
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