MURDERED school girl Shafilea Ahmed will forever be remembered after a charity supporting victims of forced marriages has won their battle for an annual memorial day to remember victims of honour killings.

Karma Nirvana’s 'Britain’s Lost Women' campaign gathered more than 115,000 signatures calling for the memorial day to be held on July 14 ever year, the Great Sankey High School pupil's birthday.

The 17-year-old was killed by her parents in 2003 after they believed she had brought shame on the family.

After suffering years of honour-based violence, including an attempted forced marriage, Shafilea’s parents suffocated her to death in front of her siblings and were finally brought to justice in 2012 following a lengthy trial.

Jasvinder Sanghera, survivor of a forced marriage and founder and chief executive of Karma Nirvana, hopes the memorial day will encourage victims of honour-based violence to speak out:

She added: “Girls and women can be murdered for the most basic freedoms – the right to education, independence or wanting to choose their partner.

"A day of memory will honour these women and dishonour the crime.

"It will also raise awareness so anyone can spot this abuse and potentially save someone’s life.”

The charity joined forces with Cosmopolitan, the world’s largest women’s magazine brand, to secure the memorial day, together with the support of the three main political parties.

Yesterday, Wednesday, Cosmopolitan co-hosted a launch event in Parliament with the Henry Jackson Society, a think-tank whose new report ‘Honour Killings In The UK’ written by Emily Dyer details the scale of the problem and what needs to be done.

An estimated 5,000 women across the world are killed each year for bringing ‘shame’ upon their families, at least 12 of these victims are British, but the charity says the true number is thought to be far higher, as many women simply ‘disappear’.

Theresa May, Home Secretary, said: “Forced marriage and honour-based violence are deplorable forms of abuse with victims’ lives destroyed by the very people they should be able to love and trust.

“I commend Karma Nirvana and Cosmopolitan’s campaign to raise awareness of these often hidden crimes through a remembrance day for victims and thank them for their ongoing work to tackle forced marriage and honour based violence.”