Ashraf Karim

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EastEnders character

Aftab Sachak as Ashraf.

Ashraf Karim

Portrayed by

Tony Wredden (1987)
Aftab Sachak (1988-1990)

Duration

1987, 1988–1990

First appearance

23 July 1987

Profile

Status

Married

Home

Bristol

Occupation

Shop proprietor

Alternate image(s)

Ashraf as he appeared in 1987, played by Tony Wredden.

Family

Wives	Sufia Karim
Sons	Sohail Karim
Daughters	Shireen Karim
Second cousins	Saeed Jeffery

Ashraf Karim was a fictional character in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. He was played by Aftab Sachak.

When Ashraf was first seen in 1987, he was referred to as the brother of Saeed Jeffery and was played by the actor Tony Wredden. However, this was later changed to assimilate Ashraf's history and incorporate his family. When the character returned in 1988 he was referred to as Saeed's second cousin and played by Sachak.

Ashraf was never really that happy in Albert Square, but it wasn't so much the area, rather his arranged marriage and children that were the cause of his discontent. Serious and stern, Ashraf enjoyed women's company and saw nothing wrong in having casual affairs.

[edit] Background

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.^[1]

In the beginning, Ashraf worked in a car manufacturing plant in the Midlands. Later on, relatives in Walford 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 soon 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.^[1]

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.^[1]

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.^[1]

[edit] Life in Walford

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.^[2]

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 troublesome brother, Sohail, revealed the relationship, Ashraf was furious. He banned her from seeing him and banned Ricky from his shop. Ashraf then 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. 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.

As well as problems with his children, Ashraf was involved in a feud with the market trader Pete Beale. Ashraf was unhappy that Pete's stall was obstructing his deliveries for his shop. The two were involved in regular altercations, with Pete often resorting to racist remarks.

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 called time on their relationship.^[1]

Ashraf then set about arranging a marriage for his daughter. Despite Shireen's misgivings she was actually pleasantly surprised when she met her suitor, Jabbar Ahmed. Jabbar was charming and enlightened and the pair 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 uncle 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.^[2]

Happily, 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.^[2]