Slumdog Millionaire Star Rubina Ali OFFERED FOR SALE By Her Father

News Of The World:

THE poverty-stricken father of Slumdog Millionaire child star Rubina Ali plans to become a millionaire himself-by SELLING his nine-year-old daughter.

In a bid to escape India's real-life slums, Rafiq Qureshi put angel-faced darling of the Oscars Rubina up for adoption, demanding millions of rupees worth £200,000.

As he offered the shocking deal to the News of the World's undercover fake sheik this week, Rafiq declared: "I have to consider what's best for me, my family and Rubina's future."

Read the whole story: News Of The World

Comments

[fiorastar]

Complex situation...caused by the extreme levels of poverty and the lack of value of basic human life with "systems" such as exist in India...not the fault of those living at the bottom, though what they find themselves forced to do is often, as in the movie, dropping themselves into the s__it of others.

The way the Hollywood corporation in this case has handled the using of poverty stricken slum kids is just a "higher end" version of what they depicted the villains in the movie doing to slum kids.

[Dimitra Ekmektsis]

Even if the story is true, the fact that the reporter set up her dad means that he could use that as "entrapment". He may not have to go to jail. I hope he does, but...

Mira, where are you? Help...

[notconfindtweenhatnboots]

Dimitra here is (supposedly) a self-admitted prostitute... Of course she is going to accuse the people of trying to stop forced child-hood prostitution of wrong-doing... pathetic.

[Agentprovokatur]

Entrapment is a three pronged technical defense to a criminal charge (which may not even be present - not sure what Indian Criminal law says even though it is described as an "illegal act" in the article) . Those who want to use it in their defense must typically show:

First, the idea for committing the crime came from the government agents and not from the person accused of the crime. If what he has done actually is a criminal act in India, this is the prong he would most likely fail, in addition to fact that the reporter would likely not be deemed a "government agent".

-Second, the government agents then persuaded or talked the person into committing the crime. Simply giving him the opportunity to commit the crime is not the same as persuading him to commit the crime.

And third, the person was not ready and willing to commit the crime before the government agents spoke with him.

India is a Common Law Country and borrows much from English law which does not provide for an entrapment defense (they do provide judicial discretion for aggregious abuse of process cases, but nothing as strong as a U.S. Entrapment defense).

This is probably a much more pedantic response than you wanted but legal terms get bandied about here so frequently without understanding what they truly mean.

[superjules]

Super! I'll take two.

[christianmama4change]

Its interesting seeing all the "outrage" expressed here yet most people here in the US care more about animal rights than they do about child rights. Get a cultural context on the issue before knee jerk reactions - seems the fake sheikh was out to make a story/benefit from exploiting the little girls story in the first place. Give the Indian justice system a chance to correct whatever wrong might have happened. I don't condone selling children but I can understand the father wanting a way out of poverty for his child & family. Cultural context people - and how about fighting for children's rights here in the US?

[RodgerLodger]

And let's hear it for those Afghani women!

[filo]

Where's Madonna when you really need her ??

[signwrite]

somehow you guys lost a whole group of posts, why?

[jood42]

I'd wondered the same thing, particularly considering my "the sole source so far is a sex-scandal tabloid, so wait for further corroboration before getting angry" post was part of it.

I love reading HP, but they do tend to use some spurious sources from time to time.

[Prakosh]

And it ain't the first time either. Lots of stuff disappears from here.

[Bitsko]

Because so many of them are worthless tro// refuse?

[Antacid]

You smell.

[stevi]

They will show up in 3 hours.

[Tulka2]

Charles Dickens would have something to say. Why not adopt.. or sponser the whole family? BTW, speaking of Dickens...? Ask the mother what she thinks. I'm betting there's a cracking good story there. Give the money to her, if you want the whole family to benifit.

[MsIrisMG]

So is the idea that the father would get all this money then immediately move out of the neighborhood because he'd be an immediate target? Would he buy her back once he'd done so?

There are so many things going on here I don't understand. It wouldn't have been an authentic feeling movie if the director had used, say, Mexican kids posing as poor Indian kids. He could perhaps have found middle class kids to play the poor ones, I suppose. I don't know, what would have been a solution that would have prevented this mess in 20-20 hindsight?

[Antacid]

Yeah, he could have paid their families more money upfront.

[MsIrisMG]

What would that have solved? Seems to me the money was the problem, not the solution!

[stevi]

While I try to be sensitive to different cultures, I fail miserably when I read things like this. I would rather die of starvation then sell my precious, beloved daughter. I cannot get my American head around this concept. I sob for the poor children of this or any culture that sees their financial future enhanced by the sale of a child. Is she going to be sold to a brothel? I saw that documentary. Oh, how heart wrenching.

[PhillyQuaker]

I was sold when I was 20 months old and the same people bought my sister at four days old. Believe me when I tell you, we had a horrific childhood. I never knew about the sale until I was 28 years old - found out when I looked up my biological family and my uncle spilled the beans. Our birth mother was desperate and longed to get us out of an environment of poverty.. She thought we would have a better life. I would take living in poverty with an extended family of aunts and a grandmother who loved me rather than grow up at the mercy of diabolical child abusers, any day.

[Tulka2]

Wow. That is quite a story you have. Are you prepare to go public? It would take courage, but yours is a story that really needs telling. Go to the Huff Post media page and you will find a form to fill out about story suggestions. BTW? I am SO SORRY.

[jweider]

It seems to me that there should be prolifers just swarming to adopt her and others like her. OR maybe they are just prolife before birth.

[Islandtime]

They are savin' up to fight thegay.

[stevi]

They are not prolife, they are probirth ONLY, after that the baby and mother are on their own.

[roshni]

They are just pro-fetus.

[blog tweet]

http://movies.ndtv.com/newstory.asp?section=Movies&id=ENTEN20090091176

According to above, someone offered to adopt the girl but was refused by her parents. This whole story looks like more media drivel to me.

[RIXX]

A 'Broken People' in Booming India

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/20/AR2007062002535.html

[gsc 99]

Infant mortality rates in Pakistan worse then South Asia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_Pakistan

[RIXX]

Indian children suffer more malnutrition than in Ethiopia!!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1421393.ece

[gsc 99]

False information. Here are facts. Pakistan is behind Nigeria

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

[RIXX]

Here lies the Crux of the matter:

Nearly 80 pct of India lives on half dollar a day!!!

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSDEL218894

[AGarcia]

People in the U.S. don't understand the life people experience in India. Thanks for posting this.

[Prakosh]

Not to worry!!! Thom Friedman is going to give them a goodly portion of the millions he made trying to convince the rest of us that the world is flat or some other counter-intuitive cr@p!!!

[gsc 99]

Yes, atleast Indian population is not radicalized with extreme Islamic views like Pakistan.

It is actually surprising to see thereaction of most people to poverty in Inida where they turn to education for a way out of poverty unlike in Pakistan where they find jobs with Taliban imposing Shariah law and to help Al queda acheive its nefarious objectives

[lynnn]

I don't see why ppl are shocked. PPL in in situations like this are NO MORE MORAL or LES MORAL than the rest of us. That was always the issue I had w/the ppl who were against Madonna's adoption. They id'd Mercy's extended family as somehow more trust worthy/ moral than the other ppl involved. Also, most people never ventured onto the Malawian blogs/ newspapers to actually see what Malawians thought. It was just some kind of six 1st world paternalism. The "we know best" attitude comes in many forms.

[Frogfoot]

Exactly. This is really no big deal.

[Prakosh]

It's cultural, people in India sell their children all the time. And after getting what $125 for her work in the movie the family should be on easy street anyway. Evidently the father is just getting greedy in his old age. Maybe Madonna will buy the daughter once she recovers from her horse riding accident. Or maybe Angelina Jolee is in the market for another child. I'm sure some millionaire is looking to enlarge her or his holdings.

[notconfindtweenhatnboots]

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere....

We cannot overlook forced human slavery just because it is not happening in our own back yard.