Study Cases

There have been a few cases of the stories of people and their struggles that have come to my attention and I woud love to blog about them and collect your opinion on them.

The first is the case of Sufiah Yusof. Though it has been around since 2008, it has just recently came to my attention and I have been very interested in it. Sufiah Yusof is a mathematics prodigy who gained entry into St. Hilda's Colleg, Oxford at the age of 13 to study Mathematics.

4 years later, in 2001, she ran away from her dormitory after completing the final exam of the academic year, and worked as a waitress at a cafe for two weeks. She refused to return home alleging that her parents had made life difficut for her.

In 2003, she returned to get jer Undergraduate Master but failed to complete the academic year. Then, she married a trainee lawyer from Oxford. Her marriage only lasted 13 months.

Come March 2008, a reporter from News of the World, reported her working as a prostitue earning up to 130 Pounds an hour.

Several reporters interviewed her and from what I can deduce from these interviews is that she is happy doing what she is doing.

So it made me wonder why she became what she is now. Personally, I think her life revolved too much around her studies and so forth that she did not develop her emotional quotient or spiritual quotient too much. As such, she would see anything wrong as right and anything right as wrong. She did not get the sense to be who she can be but was enticed to do something else.

Now, it also boils down to another point. She says that she is happy doing what she does. So is that how people achieve happiness? Doing something they like to do regardless if it is right or wrong, intellectually, emotionally or spiritually. Is that what happiness is all about?

Moving on, I am of the opinion that her parents too play a vital role as to why she has become who she is. Instead of giving her a social life and letting her have fun once a while, they pushed her to do more that she could do, which was incidentally her capability. Thus, she grew in an environment that she knew she could do better and that she must do better not knowing the consequences. Leaving her to be what she is now, a prostitue with a high pay and well-known acorss Britain.

In an interview with her mother, the mother said and I quote, when asked about her daughter, "I dont know what has come across her but let us pray that she finds the right way back,".

Soon after, an Islamic Organisation reported her to have stopped prostitution and is now working as a social worker.

The next case I wish to discuss, incidentally, also took place in Britain and is currently still being battled out. Rachel X (X as an abbreviative for her last name) is a woman who had an affair with a 65 year old man and as a result got pregnant. Now, Rachel wasn't a very smart woman. Her IQ Test results came out as 76 which is below average. She gave birth to a baby girl Y who was immediately taken from her by social workers and given to foster who were being paid by the government to take care of the child. Baby Y suffers from a chronic lung disease which made the already fragile stiuation even more destructable.

3 years prior to the birth of Baby Y, Rachel is now clean, sober and has an average IQ level. She now wants to claim custody of the baby Y and look after her. However, the court had a different mind. They ruled that the foster parents should keep baby Y. Unhappy with the decision, Rachel has now taken her legal battle to the High European Court.

Now, what makes this case interesting is that the court refused to give custody of the child back to Rachel. In my opinion, because this is what matters the most, is that the court should have in fact, handed the chile back to Rachel. After all, she is the mother of the child and there is no one better in the world to take care of a child then his or her own mother.

One then comes to think why the court ruled in such a way. Was it because of her low IQ Level? Was it because the child was fragile, having a chronic lung disease, and the court did not think Rachel could be stable enough to take crae of the child?

I think, what the court SHOULD HAVE DONE is to send Rachel for therapy sessions to make sure she is completely stable and able to take care of her own child and also provide Rachel with the proper financial aid. Thus restoring balance to nature.

One must also then consider Rachels IQ Level in this case. Small an issue as it may be, it is interesting to see how the people of the new millenium think. Their theory is that if you are smart and have an average IQ Level, you may take good care of a child. How far is this true? Does it matter? Did our ancestors have the IQ Level of Albert Einstein? Did we turn out OK?

With Love,
Alvin M.