Misbah speaks - and leaves the media with red faces

You heard it here first folks.

From the beginning, the friends and relatives of the people at the centre of this have been saying that there is more to this than was being reported.

Even looking at Louise’s own statement from Tuesday is was clear that this was not a case of kidnap as was being portrayed. The fact that Misbah’s own siblings were helping her and their father should have provoked some kind of thinking independent of lazy racism.

I was being told that the family’s side of the story could not be properly told due to media rules. At the same time, there seemed to be no compunction in circulating the cheap-shot accusation of a forced marriage just because the father was Pakistani. I hope the Daily Record particularly are feeling stupid - because they look stupid.

Still, despite Misbah’s insistence that her name is not Molly, and it certainly isn’t Campbell – Louise’s boyfriend’s name – the media are still insisting on not using her real name. It’s still only two syllables, it should not be this difficult.

As well as the overt problem, there is an mechanical one too. It's again abundantly clear that none of the Scottish media have anyone working in their newsrooms who can penetrate properly into the Asian and Muslim communities. Instead, commentary is made from a distance in what in this case turned out to be a prejudiced manner. Here it was the case of one family. However, there are also issues of national importance, sometimes affected by international events, that need a better linkup.

Searching questions have to be asked in this country too about the role of fathers. This case certainly belongs in the list of actions fathers have taken to be with their children. In the last couple of years we’ve seen Batman scale Buckingham Palace and a condom filled with purple flour thrown at the prime minister over this. Sajad Rana had a recourse none of these fathers had.

Sajad had Misbah with him for five years after divorcing Louise, due to her personal problems. Louise then took court action to take custody of Misbah, and for long periods Sajad did not even know where in the country she was, let alone have access. This shouldn’t have been allowed to happen, and this whole saga could have been avoided.

Comments

[Audrey Gillan]

Osama,
Can you contact me? I'm a guardian journalist in Lahore right now. If you look it up, you'll see I used Misbah throughout.
I'd like to talk to you.
Thanks

[Osama]

Audrey, well done for ploughing that lone furrow!

[Sunny]

Don't forget The Times' stupid coverage.

[Luqman]

Btw, thanks. This must have shamed at least one guy who was shooting off his mouth over at the MPAC forum.

And yeh, I heard it here first. ;-)

[Osama]

Sunny, didn't see it at the time, but presumably you mean this
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,542-2334288.html

[Sadat]

I have always believed that the wicked grandma may have used the sensationalist media to score points with her son-in-law by invoking stereotypes of Misbah's forced marriage.

[Sunny]

Well, not just the Leader. The Times also carried some comment pieces on forced marriages and a whole bunch of articles on how even an Asian girl from the outer Hebrides could not escape forced marriages.

[Matthew Stannard]

News in today's Metro indicated that part of the reason that Misbah prefers life in Pakistan is because of the racial abuse she received in Scotland. Judging by the comments posted on The Scotsman newspaper's website, I wouldn't disbelieve that. See http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1496&id=1300602006 and their "Misbah" page at http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1496. Incidentally, I have placed a link to your worthy Rolled Up Trouser page on the FNF home page at http://www.fnf.org.uk/fnfindex.htm because your coverage is edifying.

[Sohaib]

See this one, v. interesting:

http://tinyurl.com/r2gg2

[Anand Kumar]

Official Website of Shri Srinivasa Ragavaswamy charitable Trust in South India working towards constructing a temple for Sri Srinivasa Perumal (balaji) with Raja Gopuram which is named as Kovai Thiruppathy.