October issue 2006

The fate of a 12-year-old Scottish girl at the centre of an abduction row is still in limbo. Even her name hangs in the balance. The young girl at the centre of the controversy says she doesn’t like to be called Molly Campbell and wants to retain her Muslim name, Misbah Iram Rana. But the fact remains that it is not up to her to decide. Though she could pass as being much older, Molly is still legally a minor, and as such, she has to wait a few weeks until a Pakistani court in Lahore decides which of the two names she is allowed to retain.

What started as a domestic battle between Sajjad Ahmed, Molly’s Pakistani father, and Louise Anne Fairley, her Scottish mother, has twisted and turned into an issue that has attracted international attention. The controversy started last month when Misbah disappeared from her school on the isle of Lewis. Her mother, also her legal guardian, gave a tearful news conference urging her daughter to come back. Ms Fairley charged her ex-husband with kidnapping Molly and taking her to Pakistan, where, she alleged, he would force her into an arranged marriage with a “25-year-old man.”

A huge debate erupted in newspaper Op-Ed pages and Internet chat rooms. Unsurprisingly, the majority of voices have been critical of the Muslim community: Muslims living in the west and in Pakistan have been charged with “marrying off” their daughters by force.

However, the controversy exploded to new levels when Sajjad Ahmed surfaced. Glasgow MP Mohammed Sarwar came to Lahore, met Molly and her father and convinced Ahmed to allow his daughter to set the facts straight with the media. Misbah brushed aside all the charges levelled by her mother and told the media that she has neither been kidnapped nor has she been forced to marry anyone. “I want to retain my Islamic name, Misbah, and do not want to be called by my English name, Molly,” she said. She then hugged and kissed her father, declaring that she wanted to stay with her daddy in Lahore “forever.”

Molly confirms that she has spoken to her mother several times since the media row erupted in Lahore and says that she has informed her mom about her intentions. “I know that she will miss me, but I do not plan to return and live with her,” Misbah said, as she faced the cameras.

Misbah’s father, sporting a thick beard and a crisp, white shalwar kameez, says his ex-wife used cheap methods to malign him by saying that he had plans to marry Misbah off at such a tender age. “What shall I say to this rubbish? In fact, my daughter is highly traumatised to hear all this,” Ahmed told Newsline, as he parked in the huge car porch of his newly built two-storey house in an uptown Lahore locality.

Despite arranging for Molly to travel 4,500 miles to Pakistan to be reunited with him, Ahmed has not been able to house his own daughter in his comfortable new home. Fearing for her security, he arranged for Molly to stay with relatives at an unknown location in Lahore.

Ahmed, a member of Tablighi Jamaat, was 23 when he met Louise Campbell at a market in Glasgow over 20 years ago. She was just 16 at the time and converted to Islam and adopted a Muslim name: Sheza Ahmed Rana. They married in 1984. Together Ahmed and Fairley had four children: Tehmina, Adam, Omar and Misbah.

Ahmed claims that after the marriage collapsed, his ex-wife voluntarily gave up guardianship of the children, allowing them all to stay with him. “In fact, when we got divorced, I told her to keep all the children with her because I feared I may not be able to give them the best. But she handed over all the children to me, saying that she didn’t care.” However, eventually, Ahmed found it tough to raise the kids single-handedly in Scotland, and he chose to return to Pakistan with all his four children in tow.

“I used to take them every year to the UK, so that they could meet their mother, but two years after the divorce, she told the children that she wanted them to stay with her in the UK.” Ahmed claims, “When the children told me about their mom’s decision, I told them that it is up to them. If they wish to stay with their mom, I wouldn’t resist.”

But with the passage of time, says Ahmed, his ex-wife found herself a new boyfriend and started mistreating the children. Three of the four children were old enough to leave home of their own free will, but the youngest, Molly, was forced to remain with her mother. A legal battle over Molly’s custody ensued. Ms. Fairley won.

Soon afterwards, about 18 months ago, says Ahmed, Fairley, together with their daughter, left Glasgow and moved to Drummore, without informing him. Ahmed tracked her down, but as soon as he did that, she grabbed Molly and moved again. This time they set up home in Lewis. “Lousie got Misbah enrolled in school under the pseudonym of Molly Campbell,” he alleges, “so that I could not find her.” And it worked, for a while. “I was only able to find her a couple of months ago. And only after a lot of effort.”

Ahmed’s eldest daughter, Tehmina, went to Lewis to meet Molly. Molly confessed to being unhappy and said she wanted to be reunited with her father and siblings. “Misbah told Tehmina that she didn’t like the attitude of her mother’s boyfriend, She complained that he didn’t treat her well,” recounts Ahmed. Tehmina promptly helped her little sister arrange her travel documents and they travelled back to Pakistan together.

Now, says Ahmed, he is ready to fight any legal battle to secure his daughter’s custody. He claims, though, that his goal is not to keep the children away from their mother. “I’ll buy her a computer so that she can stay in touch with her mom. I have not forbidden her from calling either and will allow her to go to the UK whenever she wants to.”

Ahmed believes that he has not committed any crime by bringing her to Pakistan without taking the court in Glasgow into confidence. “As a father I have to give the best to my children. It was not me who kidnapped my daughter, but it was she who kidnapped Misbah from me,” he says. “My children were born Muslim, and, in fact, my wife too converted to Islam.” And according to Ahmed, Fairley’s conversion was more than one of convenience. “She used to say her prayers five times a day and had performed Hajj and Umrah, but now she is living with someone outside of marriage and has converted back to Christianity.”

According to Ahmed, the whole issue has become one of religion. “She wants Misbah to convert to Christianity too. That is the real issue. She is not interested in Misbah’s welfare,” he alleges. “If she was concerned about the welfare of her children, then why is she not asking for the custody of the other three children? They are also born from the same marriage. But she knows that she cannot convert them to Christianity because they are mature. Misbah is young, so she thinks she can be manipulated.”

Molly has publicly spoken out too. In the glare of the media, she pleaded with her mom and broke down crying. “I want to live with my father. It is unfair that I should not be given a choice to decide my life.”

In fact, the 12-year-old is distraught about returning to the UK. But it is not her mother who she is avoiding. “I do not like him,” says Molly about her mother’s new partner. “He abuses Muslims. He even abuses my Muslim father whenever he gets drunk.”

For now though, Molly’s future remains very unclear. Despite, the Glasgow court decision that granted Fairley custody of Molly, Ahmed still managed to attain interim custody until the courts give their judgement.

Pakistan has not signed an extradition treaty with the UK government, but in January 2003, judges from Pakistan and the UK did sign a “judicial protocol.” According to this agreement, each country is bound to return abducted children to the country where they normally live, without regard to the nationality, culture or religion of the parents.

But some legal experts in Pakistan say that this protocol has not been ratified. “It is just an agreement that has no legal standing and has not yet been signed by both governments,” says Asma Jahangir, the renowned humanrights activist. However, she says, Pakistan is a signatory to the Hague convention, according to which Pakistan is supposed to honour the earlier judgement given by the UK court. “He has kidnapped his daughter illegally without taking the court into confidence,” Jahangir continues, “if he wanted to take custody of Molly, he should have fought it out in the courts in the UK, rather than bringing her here secretively.”

Still, other factors may work in Ahmed’s favour. Many legal experts in Pakistan say that it usually takes ages for the courts in Pakistan to decide child custody cases. “And when the girl herself has said that she has not been kidnapped and has come here of her own free will, it means that the charge of kidnapping cannot stand,” says a lawyer.

Secondly, since the issue has become highly politicised, it will be equally difficult for the judges to give a decision in favour of the mother. Some experts also suggest that given that the judges have to look at the child’s welfare, and given that Fairley, who lives in the UK and has reverted to Christianity, will not provide an Islamic upbringing to Misbah, the case is weighted against Fairley.

Dr. Abdul Basit, who is providing legal assistance to Ahmed, says that according to Islamic Sharia law, the apostate has no rights. “Given that Misbah’s mother has converted from Christianity to Islam, this has effectively dashed her hopes to retain the child’s custody,” he said. Misbah was born Muslim, says Dr. Basit, and thus, the courts must take into consideration the upbringing of the child in the Islamic tradition. “If we go by the book, or Islamic Sharia law practiced in Pakistan, Fairley cannot be given custody of Misbah,” he explained.

However, Louise Anne Fairley, has moved the Lahore High Court in a writ petition seeking custody of her daughter. Through advocates Zahid Naseem and Naheeda Mahboob, she filed a petition that stated that her 12-year old daughter was illegally removed from her lawful custody on August 28 by her ex-husband despite a restraining order issued by Scottish police.

The court has issued pre-admission notices to the petitioner’s former husband, Ahmed, and daughter Tehmina, asking them to submit their reply by September 26.

The same court on September 8, restrained the Punjab police from arresting the teenaged British national and handing her over to a third party until a local guardian court decided the matter.

Whatever the final outcome of the case, the media frenzy is sure to continue till the final judgement.