So what do we think about Molly/Misbah, the 12yo who ran away to Pakistan?

[edam]

Very odd story about her mother searching for her and the girl turning up in Pakistan with her father, saying she wants to be there. Haven't seen any MN thread on this.

Today's Guardian says her father has filed court papers in Pakistan a. banning the mother from snatching her back and b. claiming the mother is unfit to look after her as an apostate and someone who drinks and has a history of mental illness. Which seems to me the sort of thing that gives Islam a bad name - the idea that it's justifiable to take the child away from her legal guardian because that guardian isn't Muslim.

Wondered what anyone else thought about it?

Maybe it's to do with her dm having a new partner and a new baby plus the onset of puberty. Difficult altogether.

Once the novelty wears off, she may want to run away again. Doubt that will be an easy task though.

As far as I can see her mother kept running to more and more remote places to keep her away from the rest of her family, changed her name against her will to that of her mother's boyfriend, refused to let her phone or even email her father or siblings and generally isolated that poor girl from the family she loved. The child clearly loves her father and her siblings and was suffering. I suspect she thinks her father rescued her. She said, 'If I live with my dad I can see my mum, but if I lived with my mum I could never see my dad'. Unless this story has been very much misreported, I think this mother's behaviour makes her the author of her own misfortune and the whole story has really nothing to do with Islam.

more developments

here

somehow I wonder if some people would still be saying that the girl was in the wrong if she'd run away from her muslem father to be with her mother? somehow I don't think so. one rule for one and all that.

Lewis or Pakistan - both seem to be fairly restrictive places for a teenager if you want to be wild but I doubt a muslim child would be searching out the latest disco or pub!

If Molly stayed with her mother she is separated from her father AND her siblings so maybe that is a greater burden to bear.

There's obviously a lot going on under the surface and I don't think a child should automatically stay with the mother in break ups. It's just the manner in which this is happened that is a bit disturbing.

They all sound like puerile attention seekers.

I am from belfast married to a pakistani and convert to islam. we have kids and it would be messy and complicated if we ever broke up. But I have been to Pakistan 3 times and it is a lovely lifestyle there especially if you have some money. I wouldn't want to live there cuz I am a home bird and don't like hot weather, so if my kids wanted to live there in the future i would be sad.

What's peurile or attention seeking about this?

Can I p[oint out - she didn't exactly 'run away', did she? She went to live with her other parent, where it seems she has a lot more stability.

But are there many Pakistanis living in Lewis? My friend's daughter, who is Indian/Jewish, chose to live with her LOndon based Dad at 13, and a lot of the choice was to do with the fact that she was the only non-white person living in her Mum's town. She suffered loads of racism and bullying. Perhaps Molly feels more at home in Pakistan - after all that's where her family are from.