Luton mothers highlight life 'on the breadline'

Many of the women taking part in The Mother Monologues had never performed before, said organiser Shemiza Rashid

A group of mothers have come together to perform monologues and poems telling of the struggles they face "on the breadline".

The Mother Monologues: Resisting Austerity is being performed in Luton by 10 women and will "focus on the hardship".

Shemiza Rashid, the show's producer and director and a single mother of six, said: "Austerity is real."

She said she wanted to use her "platform to bring women together".

Mother-of-six Shemiza Rashid said: "Austerity is real; these women are not statistics"

The show, subtitled "Life Happens, Coffee Helps", celebrates International Women's Day is played out in a coffee shop and came from a series of creative writing workshops.

Ms Rashid, a former teacher, said: "What makes this special is they are real women with real stories telling them how they want to.

"It is about heartache, traumatic experiences of using a food bank and not being able to feed children or pay bills on time.

"It is to focus on the hardship."

The women said a lot of the time as mothers, carers and friends, they "just have to get on with everything"

It features Haneefah Muhammad, from the town, who cares for her 96-year-old Jamaican mother, who has dementia.

"A lot of what we do as carers is behind closed doors so the opportunity is to come out of the shadows and say 'this is our struggle'," she said.

Musart Jan wrote about taking her 16-year-old daughter to a Luton food bank, to show how difficult life was for many.

She said her teenager was shocked by what she saw, and decided to volunteer there to "help the community".

A mural to celebrate the work has been painted by Aimi Rix in Luton

Sajida Khan wanted to highlight the struggles faced by her 17-year-old son, who has Asperger's.

She said: "The most vulnerable in our society are suffering the most."

She added that she hoped "the people who make the decisions take us seriously."

Ms Rashid said: "I'm showing the tenacity of women on the breadline coming together and making a difference to their families and communities."

The sold-out performance, funded by The Arts Council England, is on at 19:30 at the Hat Factory Arts Centre, on Friday.