Ashraf Karim

The Karims are a fictional family that appear in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' between July 1987 and June 1990.

Creation and development

The Muslim Karim family are 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 runs the business since ''EastEnders inception in February 1985.

The family includes father Ashraf Karim ( Aftab Sachak), his wife Sufia ( Rani Singh) and their two teenage children, eldest daughter Shireen (Nisha Kapur) and son Sohail (Ronnie Jhutti). The head of the family, Ashraf, is scripted as the second cousin of original character Saeed Jeffery (Andrew Johnson), who departs the serial in December 1985. A character named Ashraf Jeffrey appears briefly in July 1987, described as the brother of Saeed who owns the property above Naima and Saeed's shop; he comes to inform the occupants, Sue and Ali Osman ( Sandy Ratcliff and Nejdet Salih), that he is selling the property. Ashraf at this time is played by Tony Wredden, but although he is referred to as Saeed's brother in this instance, when the character returns, played by Sachak, he is 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. Scriptwriter 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 nd his wifeSufia 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 concentrate on racial difficulties and Ashraf's struggles to maintain Muslim ideologies in his children's lives, while they are identifying with Western culture. A love triange storyline is integrated into the Karims' marriage in 1989, when Ashraf is revealed to be having a long-running affair with a white woman named Stella ( Cindy O'Callaghan), causing many family problems. The culmination of this storyline sees 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.

Family tree

Ashraf Karim

Ashraf Karim, played by Tony Wredden in 1987 and Aftab Sachak from 1988 to 1990, came to Britain from Bangladesh in 1968 and was already betrothed to Sufia ( Rani Singh), 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 ( Cindy O'Callaghan), 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 ( Nisha Kapur) and Sohail ( Ronnie Jhutti), 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 is the second cousin of Saeed Jeffery (Andrew Johnson) and upon Saeed's return to Bangladesh in 1985 he takes over ownership of the flat above the Jeffery's grocery store, First Til Last. Ashraf first appears in July 1987, when he comes to inform the tenants, Sue and Ali Osman ( Sandy Ratcliff and Nejdet Salih), that he is selling the flat. Ali wants to buy it but cannot afford it and so the flat is sold to Alan McIntyre (Pip Miller). In January 1988, Ashraf employs cousins in his shop in Walford, which leaves him free to buy and run First Til Last in Bridge Street, which is owned by Saeed's wife Naima ( Shreela Ghosh) and has been run by her cousin Rezaul Kabir (Tanveer Ghani) until the Karims' arrival. The Karims then move into a house in Victoria Road, which was previously owned by the hairdresser, Julie Cooper ( Louise Plowright) and Ashraf sends his two children to private school.

The first thing Ashraf does is hire Arthur Fowler ( Bill Treacher) to work at the First Til Last. However problems arise when Arthur manages to offend one of their Asian customers by including a meat product in her delivery. Ashraf decides to punish Arthur by giving him the humiliating task of being the paper delivery boy. After much teasing from the Walford residents Arthur dumps the papers without delivering them, causing many angry complaints from irate customers. Ashraf then decides that Arthur has to write each customer a letter of apology and personally deliver them, further humiliating him. Animosity between the pair only worsens and by July that year Arthur is sacked.

The Karims keep themselves to themselves, and Ashraf is particularly protective of his daughter, Shireen. He becomes extremely concerned when she starts spending a lot of time with Ricky Butcher (Sid Owen) and he tries to nip their blossoming relationship in the bud. However Shireen continues to see Ricky behind his back and when her brother, Sohail, reveals the relationship, Ashraf is furious. He bans her from seeing him and bans Ricky from his shop. Ashraf decides that the only way to stop her from fraternising with undesirable men is 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 decides that Shireen has to have a virginity test performed. He marches her off to Dr. Harold Legg (Leonard Fenton