EastEnders actor Shaheen Jafargholi has revealed that his character’s exit from the soap is already helping victims of knife crime.
The storyline, which the London-based soap hoped would raise awareness about the increasing numbers of knife-related crimes, was widely praised when it aired on 25th May.
Shaheen, who plays murdered teen Shakil Kazemi, caught up with the Daily Star Online at the recent British Soap Awards, where he revealed he’d met the mother of a stabbing victim at a party recently…
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“I was at a party at the weekend and a middle-aged woman came up to me in tears.
“She said, ‘I just wanted to say, two days ago my 15-year-old son, he got stabbed, attacked, and he’s been watching the storyline intensely and it’s really, really helped him’.
“I don’t know how it’s helping him, but that’s our goal, to help people and reach out to people and affect some sort of change if possible.”
Shaheen’s storyline saw his alter ego Shakil knifed to death in a senseless act of violence over a stolen bike, which he was trying to return to its rightful owner after best friend Keegan Baker stole it.
Keegan was also attacked with a knife, but his injuries weren’t fatal.
Bonnie Langford who plays Shakil’s heartbroken mum, Carmel, also told the website:
“What’s so great about being on a soap is it doesn’t have to be done in an episode. We can show all the different points of view. We can show how Keegan’s going through it, we can show how vulnerable other people feel, how vulnerable young people feel. You can see the mothers’ point of view.
“In EastEnders, we’re able to show what happens when the door closes and people don’t act rationally, but they feel they need to do something, and this has been beautifully written and produced.
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“Hopefully we can at least get a conversation going, so people, families particularly, even if they don’t talk, they listen.”
EastEnders airs Monday and Friday at 8pm and Tuesday and Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One.
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