How But It’s Not Fair and Cut Flowers help pupils understand forced marriage and female genital mutilation
By Aneeta Prem MBE
World Book Day celebrates the power of reading. Children dress as favourite characters, classrooms fill with stories and schools encourage young people to discover books they may remember for years.
Some books do something else as well. They can help children recognise abuse and understand that help is available.
That belief led me to write But It’s Not Fair and Cut Flowers. Both were written to help young people understand forms of abuse that are rarely discussed openly, including forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
Many children affected by these practices may not recognise what is happening to them. They may not know that it is wrong or that help exists. A story can give them the language to ask a question safely.
Why safeguarding stories matter
Stories allow pupils to explore difficult subjects through characters rather than feeling that the conversation is directed at them. A teacher can discuss choice, pressure, secrecy and safety in an age-appropriate way while keeping the child at the centre.
Safeguarding education is not about frightening children. It gives them knowledge, confidence and a clear route to a trusted adult.
Why I wrote the books
I founded Freedom Charity in 2009 because forced marriage and related abuse were too often hidden behind family pressure, fear and misplaced cultural sensitivity.
Young people need information before crisis. Through a character’s experience, they can consider whether a choice is free, how pressure can be disguised and where help can be found.
But It’s Not Fair
But It’s Not Fair follows a young girl who discovers that decisions about her future are being made without her consent. The story helps pupils discuss forced marriage, personal choice and the right to seek help.
Freedom Charity’s accompanying lesson resources for Key Stages 3 and 4 received the PSHE Association Quality Mark. The Quality Mark applies to those resources, not to the novel itself.
Cut Flowers
Cut Flowers helps young readers understand female genital mutilation and why girls must be protected from it. It opens discussion about bodily autonomy, safety and the responsibility of adults to act.
Freedom Charity’s accompanying FGM lesson resources for Key Stages 3 and 4 also received the PSHE Association Quality Mark, supporting a sensitive, established safeguarding approach in schools.
More than 100,000 books donated
Freedom Charity has donated more than 100,000 copies of the books to children, schools, professionals, libraries and community settings.
The most important moment is not always visible in a distribution figure. Sometimes it comes after a lesson, when one child stays behind and asks a quiet question. Education can give that child the words to describe fear or pressure before harm becomes irreversible.
A different World Book Day choice
World Book Day rightly celebrates imagination and enjoyment. It can also introduce books that help children recognise their rights and understand that abuse should never be excused as culture or tradition.
Sometimes a story helps a child realise they are not alone. Sometimes it helps them recognise that something is wrong. Sometimes it gives them the confidence to speak.
About Aneeta Prem
Aneeta Prem MBE founded Freedom Charity in 2009. She is the author of But It’s Not Fair and Cut Flowers, and Chief Executive of TNA UK, The Facial Pain Charity.
