Zainab Bibi
The Daily Times (18 October, 2006) reports (based on a report in the UK tabloid The Daily Mail) that “A Pakistani woman seven feet and two inches tall is to live in Britain on benefits after claiming asylum because she is ‘too tall’ to return home.â€
Zainab Bibi, 33, claims she faces constant persecution and ridicule in her own country over her height. She has lodged an asylum claim with the Home Office and has already been granted a two-year visa to remain in the UK. Zainab, who in 2003 held the title of the tallest woman in the world, plans to live off benefits and take advantage of free NHS healthcare. Zainab lodged her application for asylum claiming she was repeatedly attacked in her hometown Toba Tek Singh near Faisalabad. She said youths in her hometown threw stones and rocks at her and often pulled at her clothing. She added that one man hit her with a stick breaking her wrist and now she is too afraid to return to Pakistan for fear of further attacks.
After flying in from Pakistan, she claimed asylum in June and was given a council flat in Stockport, Greater Manchester, where she pays no rent or council tax and receives £40 a week in benefits. Zainab’s case is likely to be heard next year, according to the Daily Mail.
My heart really goes out to Zainab for all the suffering she had to endure in Pakistan. Just being an average size guy of 5′10″,and being a free-thinker all of my life,I know what it is like to suffer persecution for having different opinions on politics,and liking VERY TALL women. Zainab is a VERY TALL and beautiful women. I hope someday I will get a chance to meet her. If everything does not go well for her in Britian,she is very welcome to come to the United States and stay at my home. I will treat her like a queen!
I understand that Zainab’s promotional tour only had about 12 days of work promoting Ice Cream for not much money back in 2006, when she took the opportunity to apply for asylum in the U.K.
£40 a week and a small council Flat in Stockport is hardly an amazing life in the scheme of things, especially if Zainab had felt intimidated in her past life. Celebrity status is all very well in a poor community on the surface to others, but it does not replace money, opportunities and a feeling of personal safety if those things were happening to her.
I believe that Zainab’s original application has actually been rejected by the home office now in 2009 and she would need to appeal.