Ashraf Karim
Encyclopedia
The Karims are a fictional family that appeared in the BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
between 1987 and 1990.
Karim family were introduced as the owners of the soap's grocery store, the First til Last, following the departure of the character Naima Jeffery
(Shreela Ghosh
) in 1987, who had been shown to run the business since EastEnders inception in February 1985.
The family included father Ashraf Karim (Aftab Sachak
), his wife Sufia and their two teenage children, eldest daughter Shireen (Nisha Kapur) and son Sohail (Ronnie Jhutti). The head of the family, Ashraf, was scripted as the second cousin of original character Saeed Jeffery
(Andrew Johnson
), who departed the serial in December 1985. A character named Ashraf Jeffrey appeared briefly in July 1987, described as the brother of Saeed who owned the property above Naima and Saeed's shop; he came to inform the occupants, Sue
and Ali Osman
, that he was selling the property. Ashraf at this time was played by Tony Wreddon, but although he was referred to as Saeed's brother in this instance, when the character returned, played by Sachak, he was described as Saeed's second cousin. Various serial-accompanying, BBC books have since ignored the original description of Ashraf as Saeed's brother when retelling the character's history, assimilating his as a Karim from his first appearance. For instance, in an extract from the 1991 EastEnders Handbook, author Hilary Kingsley writes, "Sue and Ali learn they may be evicted by Saeed's cousin, Ashraf Karim, because the flat is to be sold." Whilst in EastEnders Who's Who, published in 2000, author Kate Lock lists Ashraf Karim's first appearance as July 1987, indicating that both Ashrafs were the same character with their backstory subsequently altered in the serial.
Collectively, the family were introduced by producer Mike Gibbon
early in 1988. Scripwriter Colin Brake
has written in his book, EastEnders: The First Ten Years, that 1988 was a year of big change, "The year began in the way it intended to go on—with change. During January, Asraf [and his wife] Sufia took over the foodstore".
Ashraf has been described as heavy-handed, serious-minded and stern, while the children have been described as bright, Sohail "sneaky" and Shireen "pretty". Storylines concentrated on racial difficulties and Ashraf's struggles to maintain Muslim ideaologies in his children's lives, while they were identifying with Western culture. A love triange storyline was integrated into the Karims' marriage in 1989, when Ashraf was revealed to be having a long-runnig affair with a white, woman named Stella (Cindy O'Callaghan
), causing many family problems. The culmination of this storyline saw the departure of the Karims in June 1990; they were among many to be axed by executive producer Michael Ferguson
. It has been reported that the fate of Sufia was originally scripted differently. Prior to Ferguson's introduction, Gibbon had recruited writer David Yallop to devise ways to kill various members of the cast based, he claims, on their portrayer's acting ability. According to Yallop, Gibbon had agreed that Sufia would be gunned-down and killed in a shotgun raid. The plot never came to fruition, as Gibbon was demoted as head producer and then resigned.
. Ashraf came to Britain
from Bangladesh
in 1968 and was already betrothed to Sufia, who was still a child in Bangladesh. Before he returned to Bangladesh to be married to Sufia, he met and had a fling with Stella, a young hippy, and their relationship continued on and off after Sufia emigrated to Britain to be with her husband in 1973. Sufia knew about Stella, and suspected other affairs and found them all distressing.
In the beginning, Ashraf worked in a car manufacturing plant in the Midlands
. Later on, relatives in Walford
East London offered him a job in one of their corner shops and he, Sufia and their two small children, Shireen and Sohail, came south to live. He saved enough money to open a business of his own, although racist taunts and attacks made life difficult for him. Even so, by putting in long hours he finally made a success of running his third shop in Walford High Street.
Ashraf was the second cousin of Saeed Jeffery
and upon Saeed's return to Bangladesh in 1985 he took over ownership of the flat above the Jeffery's grocery store, First Til Last. Ashraf's first appeared in July 1987, when he came to inform the tenants, Sue
and Ali Osman
, that he was selling the flat. Ali wanted to buy it but couldn't afford it and so the flat was sold to Alan McIntyre. In January 1988, Ashraf employed cousins in his shop in Walford, which left him free to buy and run First Til Last in Bridge Street, which was owned by Saeed's wife Naima
and had been run by her cousin Rezaul Gabir until the Karims' arrival. The Karims then moved into a house in Victoria Road, which was owned by the hairdresser, Julie Cooper
and Ashraf sent his two children to private school.
The first thing Ashraf did was hire Arthur Fowler
to work in First Til Last. However problems arose when Arthur managed to offend one of their Asian customers by including a meat product in her delivery. Ashraf decided to punish Arthur by giving him the humiliating task of being the paper delivery boy. After much teasing from the Walford residents Arthur dumped the papers without delivering them, causing many angry complaints from irate customers. Ashraf then decided that Arthur had to write each customer a letter of apology and personally deliver them, further humiliating him. Animosity between the pair only worsened and by July that year Arthur had been sacked.
The Karims kept themselves to themselves, and Ashraf was particularly protective of his daughter, Shireen. He became extremely concerned when she started spending a lot of time with Ricky Butcher
and he tried to nip their blossoming relationship in the bud. However Shireen continued to see Ricky behind his back and when her brother, Sohail, revealed the relationship, Ashraf was furious. He banned her from seeing him and banned Ricky from his shop. Ashraf decided that the only way to stop her from fraternising with undesirable men was to marry her off to an eligible Muslim
suitor - much to Shireen's dismay. Muslim culture dictates that betrothed women must be virgins before marrying and so in the light of her dalliance with Ricky, Ashraf decided that Shireen had to have a virginity test performed. He marched her off to Dr. Harold Legg and demanded that he perform one, but was refused. Ashraf became incensed at Dr Legg's refusal and was even more enraged when he had the audacity to suggest that he should put aside his traditional values and embrace western ones.
In November 1989 Sufia discovered that Ashraf was still carrying on with his mistress, Stella. Sufia decided to pack her things and threatened to leave. However Ashraf managed to talk her into staying and promised that his affair was over, which was true as Stella had grown tired of being his mistress and ended their relationship. Ashraf set about arranging a marriage for his daughter. Despite Shireen's misgivings she was actually pleasantly surprised when she met her suitor, Jabbar Ahmed and they became genuinely attached. Meanwhile Ashraf had managed to talk Stella into reigniting their affair and he would regularly sneak away to be with her. Sometime later, though, Jabbar's uncle spotted Ashraf with Stella, in a restaurant, and realised the Karim family were not as honourable as they seemed. The Ahmed's cancelled the engagement and Shireen was left mystified and upset, while Sufia felt angry and betrayed at Ashraf's renewed adultery. Ashraf then decided that the only solution was to leave their shop in the hands of his cousins and move the family to Bristol
. Before they left, Shireen's mother and the women of Jabbar's family helped the young couple to meet secretly to keep the engagement going. Whether it took place or not was never stated as the Karims left town soon after. The Karims' last appearance was in June 1990.
. He was older than her, and moved to Britain
in 1968, when she was a child still living in Bangladesh
. They married in Bangladesh and moved to Britain in 1973, and had two children; Sohail and Shireen.
Sufia made her first appearance in the serial in 1988, when she moved to Walford with her family.
In 1989 she discovered that Ashraf was having an affair with a woman named Stella. Sufia decided to leave Ashraf, but he talked her round and she stayed, as Ashraf and Stella's relationship had ended.
Ashraf and Sufia arranged a marriage for their daughter Shireen with a man named Jabbar Ahmed. Ashraf had started seeing Stella again, and Jabbar's family found out about his infidelity and called off the engagement. Sufia and Jabbar's mother helped Jabbar and Shireen to secretly continue with the engagement as they had fallen in love. The Karims left Walford to live in Bristol in June 1990.
and Ricky
. She and Ricky began dating for a brief period, until Shireen's stern father Ashraf found out and forbade her from seeing Ricky. Ashraf then decided that Shireen would enter an arranged marriage, and he humiliated his daughter further by requesting that Dr Harold Legg do a vaginal examination on his daughter, to confirm she was still a virgin; Dr Legg refused. Ashraf removed Shireen from the local comprehensive and put her in a boarding school to keep her away from undesirables. Shireen disliked it so much that she ran away announcing she was being bullied by racists, so Ashraf removed her from the school.
Shireen had a brief date with Trevor Short
in 1989, but this ultimately lead nowhere as Shireen was betroved to Jabbar Ahmed. Although Shireen was opposed to the idea of an arranged marriage, when she met Jabbar she changed her mind. She fell in love with her suitor and was devastated when the marriage was called off due to the Ahmed family finding out about Ashraf's extra-marital affair with a white mistress. Before the Karims moved away to Bristol, the women of the Karim and Ahmed families met in secret, to discuss the possibility of Shireen and Jabbar marrying. Whether they reunited or not was not revealed, as the Karims left Walford shortly after.
and tried to blackmail her into dating him, by threatening to expose his sister Shireen's secret relationship with Diane's brother Ricky. Diane agreed until Sohail tried to molest her, and after the date ended abruptly, Sohail informed his father Ashraf about Shireen and Ricky.
Sohail later rebelled against his father's heavy-handed manner, and reacted badly when he discovered that his father was having an affair. Sohail, along with the rest of his family, moved to Bristol in 1990.
suggested that the Karim family were forgettable: "Few but the most fanatical soap fans will remember Albert Square's Karim family. They stayed in EastEnders for two years at the end of the 1980s, but were quickly forgotten after moving to Bristol in the wake of an arranged marriage that went wrong." He used the characters as an example of tokenism, negative stereotyping and a simplistic portrayal of ethnic minority communities in the UK, partly due to their installation as the owners of the soap's corner shop grocery store, typically associated with Asians in the UK.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
between 1987 and 1990.
Creation and development
The MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Karim family were introduced as the owners of the soap's grocery store, the First til Last, following the departure of the character Naima Jeffery
Naima Jeffery
Naima Jeffery is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Shreela Ghosh.Asian Naima tried to embrace Western culture, but this wasn't easy since her family constantly tried to force her to adhere to their ancient customs...
(Shreela Ghosh
Shreela Ghosh
Shreela Ghosh , a former dancer, actress and reporter, became publicly known in the United Kingdom when she was cast as Naima Jeffery in 1985, one of the original characters in BBC's soap opera, EastEnders. She has since given up performing to work as an arts executive...
) in 1987, who had been shown to run the business since EastEnders inception in February 1985.
The family included father Ashraf Karim (Aftab Sachak
Aftab Sachak
Aftab Sachak is a British actor, who is based in the United Kingdom. Born in the United Kingdom, as a member of the wealthy east-african Sachak family, Aftab enjoyed the life of a "jet-setting confidence trickster " before studying acting...
), his wife Sufia and their two teenage children, eldest daughter Shireen (Nisha Kapur) and son Sohail (Ronnie Jhutti). The head of the family, Ashraf, was scripted as the second cousin of original character Saeed Jeffery
Saeed Jeffery
Saeed Jeffery is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Andrew Johnson.Saeed was the original owner of the First til Last grocery store. He was never truly accepted in Walford, and his arranged marriage ended in divorce after it was discovered that he'd been making...
(Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
), who departed the serial in December 1985. A character named Ashraf Jeffrey appeared briefly in July 1987, described as the brother of Saeed who owned the property above Naima and Saeed's shop; he came to inform the occupants, Sue
Sue Osman
Susan "Sue" Osman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sandy Ratcliff. She was one of the serial's original characters, appearing in its first episode on 19 February 1985 and departing on-screen in May 1989. Created by Tony Holland and Julia Smith, Sue was...
and Ali Osman
Ali Osman
Ali Osman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Nejdet Salih. He was a member of the original EastEnders cast, appearing in the first episode on 19 February 1985. He remained with the show for nearly five years afterwards, making his final appearance on 10 October...
, that he was selling the property. Ashraf at this time was played by Tony Wreddon, but although he was referred to as Saeed's brother in this instance, when the character returned, played by Sachak, he was described as Saeed's second cousin. Various serial-accompanying, BBC books have since ignored the original description of Ashraf as Saeed's brother when retelling the character's history, assimilating his as a Karim from his first appearance. For instance, in an extract from the 1991 EastEnders Handbook, author Hilary Kingsley writes, "Sue and Ali learn they may be evicted by Saeed's cousin, Ashraf Karim, because the flat is to be sold." Whilst in EastEnders Who's Who, published in 2000, author Kate Lock lists Ashraf Karim's first appearance as July 1987, indicating that both Ashrafs were the same character with their backstory subsequently altered in the serial.
Collectively, the family were introduced by producer Mike Gibbon
Mike Gibbon
John Michael "Mike" Gibbon is an English television producer and director. Gibbon married Moya McCarthy in July 1976 and they have a daughter, Sophie....
early in 1988. Scripwriter Colin Brake
Colin Brake
Colin Brake is an English television writer and script editor best known for his work for the BBC on programs such as Bugs and EastEnders. He has also written spin-offs from the BBC series Doctor Who...
has written in his book, EastEnders: The First Ten Years, that 1988 was a year of big change, "The year began in the way it intended to go on—with change. During January, Asraf [and his wife] Sufia took over the foodstore".
Ashraf has been described as heavy-handed, serious-minded and stern, while the children have been described as bright, Sohail "sneaky" and Shireen "pretty". Storylines concentrated on racial difficulties and Ashraf's struggles to maintain Muslim ideaologies in his children's lives, while they were identifying with Western culture. A love triange storyline was integrated into the Karims' marriage in 1989, when Ashraf was revealed to be having a long-runnig affair with a white, woman named Stella (Cindy O'Callaghan
Cindy O'Callaghan
Cindy O'Callaghan is an Irish-born British actress. Her acting career began in her adolescence, when she was chosen to play the part of Carrie Rawlins in the Disney feature film, Bedknobs and Broomsticks in 1971...
), causing many family problems. The culmination of this storyline saw the departure of the Karims in June 1990; they were among many to be axed by executive producer Michael Ferguson
Michael Ferguson (director)
Michael Ferguson is a British script writer, television director and television producer. Ferguson has been described as a “long term champion of realistic popular drama”. Ferguson was executive producer of the BBC soap opera, EastEnders between 1989 and 1991...
. It has been reported that the fate of Sufia was originally scripted differently. Prior to Ferguson's introduction, Gibbon had recruited writer David Yallop to devise ways to kill various members of the cast based, he claims, on their portrayer's acting ability. According to Yallop, Gibbon had agreed that Sufia would be gunned-down and killed in a shotgun raid. The plot never came to fruition, as Gibbon was demoted as head producer and then resigned.
Family tree
Ashraf Karim
Ashraf Karim is played by Aftab SachakAftab Sachak
Aftab Sachak is a British actor, who is based in the United Kingdom. Born in the United Kingdom, as a member of the wealthy east-african Sachak family, Aftab enjoyed the life of a "jet-setting confidence trickster " before studying acting...
. Ashraf came to Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
from Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
in 1968 and was already betrothed to Sufia, who was still a child in Bangladesh. Before he returned to Bangladesh to be married to Sufia, he met and had a fling with Stella, a young hippy, and their relationship continued on and off after Sufia emigrated to Britain to be with her husband in 1973. Sufia knew about Stella, and suspected other affairs and found them all distressing.
In the beginning, Ashraf worked in a car manufacturing plant in the Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
. Later on, relatives in Walford
Walford
Walford is a fictional borough of east London in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. The name Walford is both a street in Dalston where one of the series' creators, Tony Holland, lived and a blend of Walthamstow, where Holland was born, and Stratford. The suffix 'ford' is also found throughout East...
East London offered him a job in one of their corner shops and he, Sufia and their two small children, Shireen and Sohail, came south to live. He saved enough money to open a business of his own, although racist taunts and attacks made life difficult for him. Even so, by putting in long hours he finally made a success of running his third shop in Walford High Street.
Ashraf was the second cousin of Saeed Jeffery
Saeed Jeffery
Saeed Jeffery is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Andrew Johnson.Saeed was the original owner of the First til Last grocery store. He was never truly accepted in Walford, and his arranged marriage ended in divorce after it was discovered that he'd been making...
and upon Saeed's return to Bangladesh in 1985 he took over ownership of the flat above the Jeffery's grocery store, First Til Last. Ashraf's first appeared in July 1987, when he came to inform the tenants, Sue
Sue Osman
Susan "Sue" Osman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sandy Ratcliff. She was one of the serial's original characters, appearing in its first episode on 19 February 1985 and departing on-screen in May 1989. Created by Tony Holland and Julia Smith, Sue was...
and Ali Osman
Ali Osman
Ali Osman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Nejdet Salih. He was a member of the original EastEnders cast, appearing in the first episode on 19 February 1985. He remained with the show for nearly five years afterwards, making his final appearance on 10 October...
, that he was selling the flat. Ali wanted to buy it but couldn't afford it and so the flat was sold to Alan McIntyre. In January 1988, Ashraf employed cousins in his shop in Walford, which left him free to buy and run First Til Last in Bridge Street, which was owned by Saeed's wife Naima
Naima Jeffery
Naima Jeffery is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Shreela Ghosh.Asian Naima tried to embrace Western culture, but this wasn't easy since her family constantly tried to force her to adhere to their ancient customs...
and had been run by her cousin Rezaul Gabir until the Karims' arrival. The Karims then moved into a house in Victoria Road, which was owned by the hairdresser, Julie Cooper
Julie Cooper (EastEnders)
Julie Cooper is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, played by Louise Plowright from 1989-1990. The character was one of Mike Gibbon's introductions, but she was axed in 1990 at the start of Michael Ferguson's reign as executive producer...
and Ashraf sent his two children to private school.
The first thing Ashraf did was hire Arthur Fowler
Arthur Fowler
Arthur George Fowler is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Bill Treacher.The father of the Fowler family, Arthur was essentially a good man, but he made some foolish choices and he always ended up paying dearly for them, also being bossed to the brink of insanity by...
to work in First Til Last. However problems arose when Arthur managed to offend one of their Asian customers by including a meat product in her delivery. Ashraf decided to punish Arthur by giving him the humiliating task of being the paper delivery boy. After much teasing from the Walford residents Arthur dumped the papers without delivering them, causing many angry complaints from irate customers. Ashraf then decided that Arthur had to write each customer a letter of apology and personally deliver them, further humiliating him. Animosity between the pair only worsened and by July that year Arthur had been sacked.
The Karims kept themselves to themselves, and Ashraf was particularly protective of his daughter, Shireen. He became extremely concerned when she started spending a lot of time with Ricky Butcher
Ricky Butcher
Richard Francis "Ricky" Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sid Owen. Introduced as a school boy in 1988, Ricky is one of the longest-running, male protagonists to feature in EastEnders. Owen originally left the role in 2000 to pursue a music career...
and he tried to nip their blossoming relationship in the bud. However Shireen continued to see Ricky behind his back and when her brother, Sohail, revealed the relationship, Ashraf was furious. He banned her from seeing him and banned Ricky from his shop. Ashraf decided that the only way to stop her from fraternising with undesirable men was to marry her off to an eligible Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
suitor - much to Shireen's dismay. Muslim culture dictates that betrothed women must be virgins before marrying and so in the light of her dalliance with Ricky, Ashraf decided that Shireen had to have a virginity test performed. He marched her off to Dr. Harold Legg and demanded that he perform one, but was refused. Ashraf became incensed at Dr Legg's refusal and was even more enraged when he had the audacity to suggest that he should put aside his traditional values and embrace western ones.
In November 1989 Sufia discovered that Ashraf was still carrying on with his mistress, Stella. Sufia decided to pack her things and threatened to leave. However Ashraf managed to talk her into staying and promised that his affair was over, which was true as Stella had grown tired of being his mistress and ended their relationship. Ashraf set about arranging a marriage for his daughter. Despite Shireen's misgivings she was actually pleasantly surprised when she met her suitor, Jabbar Ahmed and they became genuinely attached. Meanwhile Ashraf had managed to talk Stella into reigniting their affair and he would regularly sneak away to be with her. Sometime later, though, Jabbar's uncle spotted Ashraf with Stella, in a restaurant, and realised the Karim family were not as honourable as they seemed. The Ahmed's cancelled the engagement and Shireen was left mystified and upset, while Sufia felt angry and betrayed at Ashraf's renewed adultery. Ashraf then decided that the only solution was to leave their shop in the hands of his cousins and move the family to Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. Before they left, Shireen's mother and the women of Jabbar's family helped the young couple to meet secretly to keep the engagement going. Whether it took place or not was never stated as the Karims left town soon after. The Karims' last appearance was in June 1990.
Sufia Karim
Sufia Karim is played by actress Rani Singh. Sufia married her husband Ashraf in an arranged marriageArranged marriage
An arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...
. He was older than her, and moved to Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1968, when she was a child still living in Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
. They married in Bangladesh and moved to Britain in 1973, and had two children; Sohail and Shireen.
Sufia made her first appearance in the serial in 1988, when she moved to Walford with her family.
In 1989 she discovered that Ashraf was having an affair with a woman named Stella. Sufia decided to leave Ashraf, but he talked her round and she stayed, as Ashraf and Stella's relationship had ended.
Ashraf and Sufia arranged a marriage for their daughter Shireen with a man named Jabbar Ahmed. Ashraf had started seeing Stella again, and Jabbar's family found out about his infidelity and called off the engagement. Sufia and Jabbar's mother helped Jabbar and Shireen to secretly continue with the engagement as they had fallen in love. The Karims left Walford to live in Bristol in June 1990.
Shireen Karim
Shireen Karim is played by actress Nisha Kapur. Moving to Walford as a teenager in 1988, Shireen grew friendly with the Butcher children, DianeDiane Butcher
Diane Maureen Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sophie Lawrence. Diane appeared as a regular character between 1988 and 1991, when Lawrence decided to leave. The character made several brief returns in 1993, 1994, and 1997...
and Ricky
Ricky Butcher
Richard Francis "Ricky" Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sid Owen. Introduced as a school boy in 1988, Ricky is one of the longest-running, male protagonists to feature in EastEnders. Owen originally left the role in 2000 to pursue a music career...
. She and Ricky began dating for a brief period, until Shireen's stern father Ashraf found out and forbade her from seeing Ricky. Ashraf then decided that Shireen would enter an arranged marriage, and he humiliated his daughter further by requesting that Dr Harold Legg do a vaginal examination on his daughter, to confirm she was still a virgin; Dr Legg refused. Ashraf removed Shireen from the local comprehensive and put her in a boarding school to keep her away from undesirables. Shireen disliked it so much that she ran away announcing she was being bullied by racists, so Ashraf removed her from the school.
Shireen had a brief date with Trevor Short
Trevor Short
Trevor Short is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, played by Phil McDermott.Trevor was the inseparable sidekick of Paul Priestly. He was a well-meaning individual but he wasn't blessed with much intelligence and he managed to mess up almost every job he was given...
in 1989, but this ultimately lead nowhere as Shireen was betroved to Jabbar Ahmed. Although Shireen was opposed to the idea of an arranged marriage, when she met Jabbar she changed her mind. She fell in love with her suitor and was devastated when the marriage was called off due to the Ahmed family finding out about Ashraf's extra-marital affair with a white mistress. Before the Karims moved away to Bristol, the women of the Karim and Ahmed families met in secret, to discuss the possibility of Shireen and Jabbar marrying. Whether they reunited or not was not revealed, as the Karims left Walford shortly after.
Sohail Karim
Sohail Karim is a played by Ronnie Jhutti. Arriving in 1988, Sohail took a liking to Diane ButcherDiane Butcher
Diane Maureen Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Sophie Lawrence. Diane appeared as a regular character between 1988 and 1991, when Lawrence decided to leave. The character made several brief returns in 1993, 1994, and 1997...
and tried to blackmail her into dating him, by threatening to expose his sister Shireen's secret relationship with Diane's brother Ricky. Diane agreed until Sohail tried to molest her, and after the date ended abruptly, Sohail informed his father Ashraf about Shireen and Ricky.
Sohail later rebelled against his father's heavy-handed manner, and reacted badly when he discovered that his father was having an affair. Sohail, along with the rest of his family, moved to Bristol in 1990.
Reception
In 2003, Steve Pratt from The Northern EchoThe Northern Echo
The Northern Echo is a leading daily regional morning newspaper, serving the North East of England. The paper is based in Priestgate, Darlington. Its covers national as well as regional news. It is one of the UK's most famous provincial newspaper titles....
suggested that the Karim family were forgettable: "Few but the most fanatical soap fans will remember Albert Square's Karim family. They stayed in EastEnders for two years at the end of the 1980s, but were quickly forgotten after moving to Bristol in the wake of an arranged marriage that went wrong." He used the characters as an example of tokenism, negative stereotyping and a simplistic portrayal of ethnic minority communities in the UK, partly due to their installation as the owners of the soap's corner shop grocery store, typically associated with Asians in the UK.