The Brown Bounty Hunter

A six-hour coach ride from London's Big Ben and time stands still in Halifax. Progressive thought seems to have ignored this slumberous little township in England's Yorkshire county which is home to over 10,000 Mirpuri Muslims from 'Azad' Kashmir. Thanks mostly to the insular Mirpuri Elders. Unashamedly racist, they have ruled that Brown is better than White.

Wary of Western habits and people, these British passport-holders have trained their children to distrust the Whites. Particularly the White male. For he, Elders claim with conviction, eyes the community's daughters as exotica, seduces and ruins them. So, homegrown correctives to save the community's honour abound in Halifax. Ranging from rigorous lessons in 'Asian' morality, to a network of inquisitive community workers tattling to parents, to punitive thrashings of prodigal daughters, to an exile to Mirpur.

And, for the stubborn few who still wander astray, the community hires the services of its very own moral police—the Bounty Hunters. They are Mirpuri muscle-men who trace, threaten, often beat up and bring back girls who dare to elope with or marry White men.

Accessible only to Mirpuris after one of them "shot his mouth off" in a Channel Four programme that led to a police crackdown, the Bounty Hunters operate from neighbouring Huddersfield area gyms where they hang out. An interested ear gets them bragging about sacrificing lucrative career options as cabbies and corner storekeepers—all to protect Asian cultural heritage. "We bring solace to harassed parents, save our sisters and our community," says a self-righteous Parwan.

Not that it takes Parwan and others like him much to qualify for a Bounty Hunter's job. Amateur wrestlers or narcissist bodybuilders, these young Mirpuris only require a mindset that makes them wince at the thought of their women preferring White men. And a belief that they are executing Allah's will in maintaining the purity of their race.

Approve of their cause, and they will flaunt the recent exploits of Bounty Hunter Tariq who recently brought back three girls from Nottingham. A forage for leads, a walk to uncover the tracks and a few good blows at the 'White junkies' who seduced the girls, says Parwan, did the trick. "The Whites are cowards when it comes to Bounty Hunters. They are too scared to even report us to the police." Pride is taken in pointing out to the uninitiated that the most renowned among them, who featured in Nick Danzinger's book Danzinger's Britain, has gone on record with the claim that he has brought back 270 girls from places as far off as Aberdeen and London. "He believes in helping the downtrodden and always insisted that had circumstances allowed he'd have loved to help in Bosnia," says Parwan.

Such altruistic motives, though it takes upwards of £1,000 to buy a Bounty Hunter's services, are applauded by the community. "The Bounty Hunters are doing their bit for their people in a foreign world. The Whites can't have everything plus our women," says an approving Tahir Khan, a Halifax cabbie. At twenty-something and born in Britain, Tahir is modern enough to realise the need to rationalise his prejudice with some logic, however arguable. "Anyway most of these stupid girls run away with punk goras (white men) who use them and then dump them. But for these Bounty Hunters these idiotic girls would be in a bad shape. These White guys need to be bashed up," he says.

Nurturing this reverse apartheid through brute force is given other rationales. Observes Prof Syed Ahmed Hussain Timrezi, Imam at the town's Madini mosque: "The Quran says our men can marry outside the community but not our women. And it is our duty to do our all to obey the strictures."

Then, over Danish pastries and steaming tea, follows the Imam's diatribe on the English. Hardworking corner storekeepers like the Mirpuris, says the Imam, can't let the laidback, born-lucky Brits influence their young. "The fact is that the Whites don't understand or accept us. So why should we accept them? Why should we let their education system mould the attitudes of our children? And why should our daughters behave as shamelessly as the Westerners?" Timrezi demands. He warns of the perils of a system that teaches its children to call for police assistance if beaten up by parents. "Our daughters have to be protected," he insists.

Orthodox education, designed to breed insularity, has always been good 'protection'. Hardly surprising, then, that a sleepy Sunday finds a subdued group of young salwar-kameez clad Mirpuri girls learning to be 'proud' Asians in Halifax's Queen's Road Neighbourhood Centre. Under supervision they cook kheer and rogan josh. Important elements, their tutors

point out, that add up to form and retain 'Asian' cultural identity. "Fish, chips and mushy pea are for a different race, after all. It's not our tradition," a teacher says. Later, the girls are to be given lessons on how to stack files, set up card tables and shower elders with unconditional reverence. "We try to make education here as relevant as possible," observes Miriam Khan, youth worker at the centre. Mother of three at 30, Miriam suggests that she is the community's most progressive woman. She drives a car and is concerned about intellectual matters such as preservation of Asian values—"normally a male preserve". So, armed with the conviction that traditions make the world a livable place and no formal degree, Miriam attempts to hammer youthful energies into the Asian die.

LOWERING her voice, she speaks of the shrewd little tactics that win her the confidence of teenage girls before she can work on them. "Sometimes, when the girls are looking appreciatively at a young lad, I say something wicked about his anatomy! Do it over a time and they think you are one of them." Ferreting out information is next on the agenda. Are the girls too infatuated with English culture? Have they had a puff or two of Marlboro on the sly? Are they going to report dutifully if a boy acts fresh with them? Do they know of any Mirpuri girl their age who isn't a virgin? Unhealthy interest in White boys, if detected, is vehemently discouraged through dialogue and diatribe.

For the wild few who still don't see much sense in falling in line, the community has other remedies. "Best to correct the situation through physical punishment sometimes. Why wait for the Bounty Hunter! So, if a girl is going haywire it's best to inform her parents and let them deal with it," Miriam pronounces. Those who can't be beaten into good behaviour, however, suffer a more dreary fate. They are exiled to their native home in 'Azad' Kashmir where they are treated with large doses of morality for a year or two.

A harsh measure, but one that is perceived as an effective tool for taming brats, says Kaukab Yusuf, manager at the Beach Hill Family Centre. Embarrassed by the barbarity of it all, the social worker unravels the arguable logic that motivates such unreasonable practices: "Most parents convince themselves that they are torturing their daughter for the sake of her future happiness and that a long stay in Mirpur will help her adjust with her groom who is usually imported from back home." Marriage, Kaukab points out, is seen as one of the most common punishments meted out to 'fast' girls. "If you can't control them, then marry them off, that's the acknowledged maxim. No matter how young...," says Kaukab. "If nothing works, there is always the Bounty Hunter." And what do the Mirpuri girls feel? It's difficult to know. The Yorkshire accent is unmistakable as they mumble courtesies. Niceties over, they have little to say. They, in fact, have no say. Their voices smothered by oppressive lessons in morality, these daughters from 'Azad' Kashmir have been tutored into a silence that stalks them through their lives.

It follows them as, mandatory veils securely in place, they walk Halifax's cobbled pathways in huddled two and threesomes. Casting longing glances at the lifestyle displayed at Littlewoods and Dorothy Perkins. Western lifestyle. A lifestyle they daren't even crave for. A lifestyle that might bring on the Bounty Hunter.