At my otherwise uninspiring temp job, I get to listen to BBC 1xtra and lately this story has been all over the news.
In late August, Molly Campbell ran away from her mother's house in Scotland. Her mother claimed she'd been kidnapped by her father. She resurfaced in Pakistan to deny those charges and say she had come voluntarily. This is an excerpt from a time line of the case:
Please scroll to the bottom for the video interview. I'm trying to get better at this blog posting/html stuff.
FRIDAY 25 AUGUSTMisbah herself is quite clear on where she wants to be:
Misbah is met by her sister Tahmina outside her school in Stornoway and flies to Glasgow Airport.
Accompanied by her sister and father, she then boards a flight to Lahore in Pakistan.
WEDNESDAY 30 AUGUST
The British High Commission in Pakistan joins the investigation. Staff in Islamabad say they are in contact with her mother's lawyers and police.
Mr Sarwar is asked to help trace the family in Pakistan.
Friends of Misbah's father say he is angry that the case has been portrayed as an abduction.
FRIDAY 1 SEPTEMBER
Misbah tells a press conference in Lahore that she left Scotland of her own free will and that she wants to stay with her father in Pakistan. She insists that she wants to be known as Misbah Rana and not Molly Campbell.
WEDNESDAY 6 SEPTEMBER
A judge in Pakistan grants Misbah's father an interim custody order until the end of September.
FRIDAY 8 SEPTEMBER
Misbah's family in Pakistan files a court petition raising concerns that she may be deported from the country against her will.
The police chief in Lahore submits a statement to the court saying there has been no instruction to intervene in the case.
TUESDAY 19 SEPTEMBER
Misbah's mother files a petition for her return with the high court in Lahore.
She alleges that her daughter has been "abducted" in an "illegal and improper manner" and is being detained "improperly".
TUESDAY 26 SEPTEMBER
A civil court in Lahore orders that Misbah should not leave its jurisdiction before another hearing in October.
SATURDAY 30 SEPTEMBER
Misbah's father is granted temporary custody of her for a further three weeks.
Mr Rana is granted the extension in order to give time for his lawyer to reply to his former wife's objections.
TUESDAY 10 OCTOBER
Misbah tells the Lahore high court that her mother had refused to allow her to perform Muslim prayers. She also tells the hearing that she was unhappy with a new person in her mother's life.
FRIDAY 17 NOVEMBER
The judge rejects an out-of-court compromise involving her parents.
The proposed deal collapses in court after Mr Rana's lawyer insists that Misbah should only be allowed to see her mother in Pakistan and should not be allowed to return to Scotland for at least two years.
WEDNESDAY 29 NOVEMBER
A judge in Pakistan rules that Misbah must return to her mother, three months after she left Stornoway.
SATURDAY 2 DECEMBER
Lawyers for the father of Misbah Rana lodge an appeal against a court order to send her back to Scotland.
(VIDEO INTERVIEW)
Post a Comment
4 comments:
interesting. how old is she? do you know?
She's twelve years old.
wow. 12 years? that's very interesting. makes it even more interesting than i initially thought. she looks like 16 or 17 or somewhere in there. i guess her being 12 brings up all kinds of legal custody/guardian issues right? does she even have the legal right to leave her mom like that? although i do think that her voice should be heard in the matter.
Yeah, I think thats the crux of the debate, because her mom does have legal custody, and I can imagine how distraught I would be if my daughter turned up missing without notice.
On the other hand, it seems like her mom's home life was unstable, or even hostile to Misbah, because of her mom's new boyfriend/husband. Also, her father was quite affluent...I can see the tug for her, though I would be interested to find out more about how she made the decision to leave-- was she talking with her father and sisters well beforehand about this? Or was it a spontaneous opportunity? Either way, it presents some complicated ethical territory to navigate.
I mean, how DO you settle a custody dispute across cultures and nations? Also, how old should a child have to be to be able to decide where he/she wants to live?
I wonder what Marian Wright Edelman and the Childrens Defense Fund would have to say about it?
Post a Comment