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Showing posts from April 24, 2009

The Perils of Rubina: The Slumdog Star vs. the Media

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Slumdog Millionaire propelled nine-year old Rubina Ali to instant stardom and fame. However, too much fame can be a bad thing for a pretty little girl from an impoverished background. She has been subject to near constant media attention, witnessed brawls between her mother and stepmother over her custody and, most recently, been the subject of a dubious international sting operationThe British tabloid News of the World purported to have caught Rubina's father, Rafiq Qureshi, on video agreeing to a deal to sell the girl to an Arab sheikh for 200,000 pounds (about $280,000). The story quoted Qureshi's brother as saying, "The child is special now. This is not an ordinary child. This is an Oscar child." Without bothering to check the allegations with Qureshi, Indian newspapers and cable television channels descended on Rubina in her home in a slum in Bandra, a suburb of Mumbai, asking her to clarify the incident. Qureshi has consistently denied the tabloid's claims a