Teen girl caught up between Pak-Brit culture wants to ’spread wings’ to discover new life
By ANISunday, February 13, 2011
LONDON - Molly Campbell, now a 16-year-old British girl who had accompanied her Pakistani father to Lahore after the divorce of her parents and converted to Islam there, is caught up between two cultures after she returned to Blackburn to ’spread her wings’ and discover a new life at her free will.
Molly had left for Pakistan at the age of 12 where it was feared that her father was about to force her into marriage with a man twice her age in Pakistan.
After her sudden disappearance from school in Britain, she appeared on television insisting that she was happy in that country and had chosen to live as a Muslim.
She also said that her name was changed to Misbah Ahmed Rana, and eventually the story was forgotten by the media.
However last week, four years after the drama of her disappearance, it was revealed that Molly has returned back to Britain, and is living in a small three-bedroom terrace house in Blackburn, Lancashire, with her sister, two brothers and her toddler niece, the Daily Mail reports.
“I’m Misbah Ahmed Rana, not Molly Campbell and I’m back because I want the freedom to choose what I do in life. I’m my own person now I’m 16, and no one can force me to stay anywhere I don’t want to. If I’d stayed in Pakistan, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve what I want to achieve. But now I’m back in Britain, I can spread my wings and see where they take me,” Molly said.
After staying in eight-bedroom villa in Pakistan, she said that though she is finding it difficult to adjust in a small house in Britain, she insists that there is no point staying in a villa in the absence of her family members.
Now, all she wants is a free life where she can take her own decisions, and establish herself as a teacher.
“Now I’m back in Britain, I’m going to college and I want to be a teacher one day, something I think I would be great at. I’m a fast learner and I know I’ve got a lot of catching up to do but I will do it. I know I will,” she added. (ANI)
