On a tube from Heathrow into central London recently, Haron and I caught each other observing the young woman sitting opposite. She’d clearly just arrived in the country, with two huge suitcases that suggested that she was here to work or study for some time.The girl picked up a copy of Metro, the free newspaper, discarded by a previous passenger. We watched as she studied the strange, unfamiliar place names - for now just words, abstract concepts - as if searching for clues to the lifeblood of her new home. Which places would become real, three-dimensional for her; which would remain foreign and unexplored? Which marked the future-familiar locations where she would work, play, love, cry?

And then she laid it down, pulled a map from her pocket and started to gather her things together. Her uncle would be waiting for her - pleased to see her, no doubt, eager for news from home. She’d be staying with him: her father had emphasised how lucky she was.

Only… only daddy had said something else as he’d kissed her goodbye. About how he’d been talking to her uncle about her behaviour in London. How he’d explained how she was expected to uphold the highest standards at all times. About how transgressions were punished at home….

…about how he’d given her uncle his full permission to punish her as he felt fit. About how her uncle had assured him that his own daughters had been brought up ‘traditionally’, and how he hoped not to have to use the cane during her stay, but would do so firmly and without hesitation if her conduct caused it to be strictly necessary…

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