April 3, 2003

Zainab Bibi has levelled allegations against the management of the Guinness Book of World Records for the unauthorized publication of her photograph, writes Majeed Gill

Twenty-eight year old Zainab Bibi, the claimant of the “World’s Tallest Woman” title with a height of seven feet two inches, has challenged all the tallest women of the world. She made this challenge during her visit to Bahawalpur. In a conversation with TR, along with her promoter Asghar Bahawalpur, Zainab Bibi, who belongs to District Toba Tek Singh, said that she is the tallest woman in the world in her age group.

According to Zainab, her height started increasing unusually at the age of 15 and today she measures seven feet two inches, while her weight is 82 kilograms. Her legs measure four-and-a-half feet each and the length of her arms is three-and-a-half feet; the size of her hands is nine-and-a-half inches, while her fingers are four-and-a-quarter inches long.

In response to a question, Zainab Bibi said that she has to place a special order for her shoes which is size 12. She requires 12 metres of cloth for her clothes and sleeps on a custom made nine-foot bed.

Zainab Bibi has levelled allegations against the management of the Guinness Book of World Records for the unauthorized publication of her photograph in the 2003 edition. The photo was taken on her visit to Jordan last year. The published photo shows her standing next to Pakistan’s tallest man Azad Khan Masood of South Wazirstan, and the shortest man Younis Edwan of Jordan who measures two feet 1.5 inches. Zainab Bibi resents the fact that there was no caption nor any mention of her height in the book, and she has been denied thousands of dollars by the Guinness management which she feels are rightly hers.

Her promoter Asghar Bahawalpur added that there was no justification of the publication of her photo, without Zainab’s permission. He has engaged a counsel to serve a show cause notice on the company to pay an amount to Zainab Bibi within a month, failing which they will have to face legal proceedings in a Pakistani court. He claimed that such personalities are paid a handsome compensation and are asked for their permission in advance. He further claimed that in her case, the honorarium was estimated to be about 100,000 dollars and a monthly payment of a few thousand dollars.

Zainab Bibi belongs to a poor family which is settled near Rajana, Toba Tek Singh. Zainab is the daughter of a labourer and is illiterate; she owns a tonga which helps her earn a living for her family. Her parents are of normal height and she has five sisters, three of whom were married with the money she was gifted during her visits abroad last year. This money was also used for the construction of her pucca house. Zainab hopes to get married but only after she has helped marry her two younger sisters. She claims that while on tour in Saudi Arabia last year, a Sheikh had proposed to marry her, and offered her three lakh dollars but she declined.

Zainab intends to establish a school for orphan girls with the money she is gifted during tours abroad. She said that during her visit to Saudi Arabia she also met former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, who gave her 10,000 rupees. Zainab expressed her desire to meet Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali and said that she will never leave her country and will always project it during her visits abroad.

To establish her claim of being the tallest woman, she concluded by saying that since the tallest woman, Zengjinlani from China, who was 2.48 metres (eight feet 1.75 inches) tall had died on Feb 13 1982, she was now the tallest woman in the world.

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