A Tall tale: Pakistani woman given asylum because she’s 7ft 2in tall

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A Pakistani woman was granted asylum because she claimed her height was making her a victim in Pakistan.

Pakistani woman given asylum because she’s 7ft 2in tall

06th January 2009

A 7ft 2in Pakistani woman is expected to be allowed to stay permanently in Britain because she claims her height has made her a target at home.

Zainab Bibi arrived two-and-a-half years ago and has spent much of the time since on benefits.

She has been able to send money home to her family while Home Office investigators examine her application for political asylum.

Miss Bibi, 35, a former holder of the ‘world’s tallest woman’ title, said when she lodged her claim that she was afraid to return to Pakistan because youths had thrown stones at her, pulled at her clothing and she once broke her wrist when attacked.

Officials are expected to recommend that she should be allowed to remain in Britain.

Yet back in the impoverished, Punjabi village of Mandi Rajana where she was born, her family, friends and police suggest that far from being a victim, her international recognition meant she enjoyed celebrity status whenever she returned home.

Her widowed mother Iqbal Bibi, 72, kissed her picture and said: ‘She is safe here but if she is happy in England – and the people are very kind to her, she says – then her happiness is our happiness.’

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