Dec 11, 2009

Good Advice Is Rarer than Rubies | Summary

Every Tuesday, women arrive from different parts of India to apply at the British consulate for a permit to enter England, where they will meet with their fiancés or husbands selected by family members through the tradition of arranged marriages. Muhammad Ali makes sure he is always there to meet the bus of “Tuesday women” because he “specialize[s] in advising the most vulnerable-looking of these weekly supplicants,” charging them a fee for his “services,” which he purports will simplify the immigration process. In fact, he merely cons the women desperate to get to England....