Rubina Ali - Beautiful 9-Year-Old Child Star

In Slumdog Millionaire. A great movie, by the way, if you haven't seen it. I liked it. Had some very disturbing scenes, though. I suspect there are many, many places in India where children actually do live as depicted in the film, and I have no doubt that perfectly healthy children are maimed to become beggars on the streets. Certainly a blind child - one who's eyes have been gouged out with a spoon - is going to elicit more sympathy - and thus become a more "productive" beggar than a child who has both eyes. Ditto for chopping off hands, arms, feet or legs. If maiming children in third world countries is not a criminal act, it certainly should be, and I am of the opinion that an eye for an eye or a hand for a hand or whatever should be only part of the punishment these barbarians receive.

Rubina Ali's mother is claiming that her father, who is remarried, tried to sell the little girl - oh, but in his words, he was not selling her, instead he was giving her up for adoption for a price. Six of one, half dozen of the other. Rubina's mother, Khushi, said "that Quraishi and his second wife Meena were always 'crazy for money.' Now that my daughter has achieved international fame, they want to capitalise on it at any cost." Throw the bum and his second wife in jail. Or at the very least obtain a restraining order - or whatever it is you need in your country - to keep this man, the little girl's own father, and his money-hungry wife far, far away from little Rubina.

It was reported "that Quraishi wanted to get rid of poverty and become a millionaire by selling his nine-year-old daughter." Nice. Supposedly he was demanding £200,000. "I have to consider what's best for me, my family and Rubina's future." Oh, really? Doesn't sound to me like you gave your little girl's future any consideration at all!

Apparently the bum's phone was shut off - Rubina's father's phone - and his neighbor and friend Yakub Abdul Shaikh "confirmed that the incident had occurred a few days ago, but nobody really took it seriously as Rubina's father said he had been 'misunderstood' by the foreigners... since the foreigners were speaking in Arabic..." He claims that Rubina's father "had no intentions of giving away his daughter in adoption for £200,000 to an Arab family." Let me correct that for you - it isn't adoption in this part of the world. It is marriage. I think we can all be fairly certain that no one pays £200,000 for a maid or domestic help. This little girl, if he would have been able to get away with it, would become some pedophile's xes toy. There. I said it.

Make of it what you will. I am sickened that the man - little Rubina's father - even considered it. And you wonder what makes other countries look at you with ridicule and scorn. Let me answer that for you - it is particular instances just like this - where little CHILDREN are married off to grown men!