Racist media? What’s in a name.

I wonder if there would have been such a media storm if it was Misbah Iram Ahmed Rana who had been taken to Pakistan rather than Molly Campbell.

I confess to initially thinking - how awful, a poor little British girl suddenly plunged into a completely different culture by her cruel pakistani father who wanted to marry her off to some 67 year old letch. But how much of that thought was because she was called Molly?

I listened to her brother on Radio4 saying “I have no idea where the name Molly Campbell came from - her name is Mishbah”.

Also it seems that Misbah’s mother made up a lot of stuff (like the marriage story) to get the authorities/media on her side.

Whilst it’s always a bad thing when children’s lives are disrupted by family breakups, especially when one parent lives in a far away place - I just don’t think that most cases like this make the news when the children have names like Yusaf or Mohammed.

Written by exmonkey on September 2nd, 2006 with 11 comments.
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