Gillian Gibbons: Sarah Khaward, Ghost Houses And Not In My Name
GILLIAN Gibbons – Anorak’s look at the newspaper reporting on the British teacher jailed in Sudan by the Teddy Bear Taliban
THE SUN: front page: “’Teddy’ Miss to go free. Gillian Gibbons is “on the brink of freedom”
Page 9: “READY TEDDY GO!” – Will she be freed early? Gibbons was jailed last Thursday for 15 days for allowing a pupil, aged 7, to call the class teddy Mohammed. “I’m fine, I’m being well treated,” says Gibbons
Gillian Gibbons is innocent. She’s the victim of a “wicked plot” perpetuated by a “scheming” Sarah Khaward, who had fallen out with school principal Marina Hitchens and used to teddy bear to get “revenge”
Mohammed the bear has been locked in a “Khatoum vault”. “It’s a life sentence for the bear. He’s in a police store and will never be handed back.” We fear for his safety. Ruperts – The Teddy Bear Rescue Centre – has yet to comment
DAILY MIRROR front page: “PARDON HER – Sudan president may step in to free jailed teacher Gillian”. Or may not…
Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir is meeting British Muslim peers Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Lord Nazir Ahmed. They will discuss Gillian Gibbons
Have the gun boats standing by…
Says Rosalind Marsden, British ambassador to Sudan: “We’ve got all our fingers crossed” – Such is the way of modern diplomacy
DAILY MAIL page 9: “Teddy teacher ‘within hours’ of going free”
Says Ms Gibbons: “I have been given so many apples I could set up my own stall”
She is the victim of a “spiteful plot”
DAILY EXPRESS page 6: “’Teddy’ teacher’s hops of release dashed by hatred”
A “saturated hatred” of Britain gives Gibbons no chance of early release. Says Baroness Warsi: “I am hopeful. There is a huge amount of good will here”
DAILY STAR page 10: “TEDDY TEACHER TO BE FREED IN HOURS”
Says Gillian Gibbons: “The Sudanese people in general have been pleasant and very generous, and I’ve had nothing but good experiences during my four months here”
THE TIMES page 2: Gibbons is being held not in a “cockroach-infested” prison but in one of Sudan’s “anonymous whitewashed bungalows…They were once used as ‘ghost houses, the sort of places where opponents would disappear”
THE GUARDIAN front page: “Hopes of pardon for teacher in Sudan jail” –
“NOT IN OUR NAME,” proclaims the small placard being held by a Muslim woman outside Sudan’s London embassy” – another woman holds a teddy and a sign declaring the same message
The arrest of a woman for calling a teddy bear Mohammed is being linked to the so-called anti-war demonstrators who proclaim “Not In My Name”, when it suits
THE INDEPENDENT page 13: Four people are stood outside the Sudanese Embassy in London. On carries a teddy wearing a Union flag T-shirt. “NOT IN OUR NAME” is the message. And mind what name you do use…
DAILY TELEGRAPH front page: “Teddy teacher cold be freed by Sudan today”
Lord Steel, former Liberal leader, and Michael Howard, former Tory leader, are flying to Sudan tonight. This had been arranged before Ms Gibbons’ arrest
“At last 10 teddy bears called Mohammed have been put up for sale on eBay, as a show of solidarity with Ms Gibbons”
Posted: 3rd, December 2007 | In: Reviews Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
