The Karims are a fictional family that appeared in the BBC soap opera EastEnders between 1987 and 1990.
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The Muslim 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.[1]
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.[1] 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.[2] 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.[1] 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."[2] 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.[3]
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".[1]
Ashraf has been described as heavy-handed, serious-minded and stern, while the children have been described as bright, Sohail "sneaky" and Shireen "pretty".[2] 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.[1] 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.[1] 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.[4]
| second cousins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ashraf Karim | Sufia | Saeed Jeffery | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shireen Karim | Sohail Karim | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ashraf Karim | |||||||||||
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| Aftab Sachak as Ashraf. | |||||||||||
| EastEnders character | |||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Tony Wredden (1987) Aftab Sachak (1988–90) |
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| Duration | 1987–90 | ||||||||||
| First appearance | 23 July 1987 | ||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||
| Occupation | Shop proprietor | ||||||||||
| Alternative image(s) | |||||||||||
| Ashraf as he appeared in 1987, played by Tony Wredden. | |||||||||||
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Ashraf Karim is played by Aftab Sachak. 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.[2]
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.[2]
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.[2] 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.[2]
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.[1]
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.[2] 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.[1] 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.[1]
| Sufia Karim | |||||||||
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| EastEnders character | |||||||||
| Portrayed by | Rani Singh | ||||||||
| Duration | 1988–90 | ||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||
| Occupation | Shop proprietor | ||||||||
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Sufia Karim is played by actress Rani Singh. Sufia married her husband Ashraf in an arranged marriage. 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.
| Shireen Karim | |||||||||||
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| EastEnders character | |||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Nisha Kapur | ||||||||||
| Duration | 1988–90 | ||||||||||
| First appearance | 21 June 1988 | ||||||||||
| Last appearance | 21 June 1990 | ||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||
| Occupation | Student | ||||||||||
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Shireen Karim is played by actress Nisha Kapur. Moving to Walford as a teenager in 1988, Shireen grew friendly with the Butcher children, Diane 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.
| Sohail Karim | |||||||||
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| EastEnders character | |||||||||
| Portrayed by | Ronnie Jhutti | ||||||||
| Duration | 1988–90 | ||||||||
| First appearance | 28 June 1988 | ||||||||
| Last appearance | 21 June 1990 | ||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||
| Occupation | Student | ||||||||
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Sohail Karim is a played by Ronnie Jhutti. Arriving in 1988, Sohail took a liking to Diane Butcher 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.
In 2003, Steve Pratt from The Northern Echo 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."[5] 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.[5][6]
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