There has been silence from the State Women’s Commission and the State Human Rights Commission in CPI(M)-ruled Kerala. Communal forces of the extreme Hindu kind have used the tragic, extra legal confinement of a woman, and reportedly violent incarceration to fuel hate sentiments against Muslims and Islam. Hadiya, 23, allegedly illegally confined to her home simply because she exercised her right as an autonomous woman.
Today, at 12 noon well known public intellectuals, J Devika and Sachidanand are addressing a press conference on the issue in Thiruvanthapuram. “These elements have sought to infuse fresh life into the dangerous Love Jihad discourse through this case. Far from being just an attempt to malign the present government led by the CPI-M, this is threatening now to undermine the relatively peaceful coexistence of communities in Kerala,: says Devika. A complaint to the State Women’s Commission has also been made.
Hadiya, illegally confined to her home through brute force is apparently being coerced and beaten.
The complaint to the SWC states that, “When six women sought to visit her with onam gifts on August 30, 2017, he refused to allow them in, and Smt Ponnamma abused them verbally. These women have persistently claimed that they saw Dr Hadiya stand near the window and heard her call for help, and that she complained of being beaten. Though these visitors did not enter the premises and were on their way back, they were slapped with charges of unlawful assembly and criminal trespass at the behest of Mr Asokan.”
Further, it states that, “ On 27 August 2017, Dr Hadiya sent a message to her chosen partner Shafin entreating him to help her. The message was sent from her mother’s phone, and it appears that her access to it was temporary.”
Teesta Setalvad has extended her support and issued the following statement: “The confinement of Hadiya,by all accounts, forceful and coercive has not only played into the dangerous communal discourse of Love Jehad but is a serious assault on the autonomy and equality of a woman. Articles 14 and 21, apart from 25 have been seriously flouted. The fact that this set of crimes–there are even reports of her being beaten while in her parent’s custody–are being multiplied manifold by the behaviour of the Kerala police and rhe silence of an otherwise vocal state government makes matters worse. We endorse all attempts to raise voices Against this injustice.”
The story
First a recent judgement of the Kerala High Court annulled a consensual marriage of an adult Muslim woman. The judgement also makes many other remarks which can completely undermine any claim for equal citizenship for women and are violative of their fundamental and constitutional rights. Hadiya is a young woman, 24 years of age who has went on record to say that she willingly converted to Islam. Her parents have since approached the court twice asserting that she has converted to Islam under external force, demanding that she return to living with them. In their second petition to the Kerala High Court they also raised the allegation that she would be transported outside the country and demanded the court’s intervention.
On the judgement being challenged in the Supreme Court, the apex court ordered an NIA (National Investigative Agency) enquiry into the marriage, framing the whole case in terms of counter terrorism proceedings and completely bypassing concerns around the judicial recognition of women’s agency and the violation of women’s constitutional rights.
Where does that leave Article 14, Article 21 and Article 25 of the Constitution?
During the proceedings of the second petition, Hadiya contracted a marriage with a Muslim man according to Islamic rites and rituals and stated her full consent in the marriage. The Kerala High Court has finally annulled the marriage and forced Hadiya into the custody of her father. She has not even been allowed a phone and has been denied any contact with the rest of the world beside her parents, in effect putting her under house arrest for no proven crime committed by her. Policemen guard her every day and just beyond stand RSS cadre further ensuring that their prize catch finds no exit from the situation.
Her plight is heart-rending. The attitude of the higher courts question all women in India, young and old, will ask. It is evident that the consequences of this case will fall upon us all, not just those who seek to convert into Islam or marry Muslims. Most worrying is the fact that while ordering the NIA to probe the circumstances of Hadiya’s marriage to ensure that it was not forced or driven by jihadism, the Supreme Court referred to the Blue Whale challenge to prove that people may be misled even to commit suicide. The Supreme Court openly infantilises Hadiya by implicitly comparing her decision to convert and marry a Muslim to Blue Whale victims who are usually teenagers pushed to suicide.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has at one stroke given the highly-exaggerated and Islamophobic discourse of ‘love jihad’ a new lease of life (the incidents used to stoke this fire, of a group of alleged Salafi converts who left for Syria and joined the ISIS in 2015, is more complex, as it involved both men and women converting, but such fine details have to be necessarily ignored if the discourse of ‘love jihad’ is to gain its polarising potency). By stating further that Hadiya’s marriage, the most important event in her life, could not happen without her parents’ presence; that she should be sent back to her parents, assuming that parental custody of a mature woman was legitimate and safe; that her right to public speech and interaction with outsiders could be suspended in this stay, making it confinement in effect; by refusing to speak with her until the NIA report was submitted; and by referring to ‘Indian tradition’ requiring that all unmarried daughters be subject to their parents until their marriage, without mentioning their age, the Supreme Court just eroded the rights of all women in India in a grievous way.
In an insidious way, the court’s deep distrust of Hadiya’s account of her conversion may well have pushed her into the decision to marry. Choosing a life partner, Eloping with a lover to escape troublesome parents is not unknown to us; instead of recognising this reality, the court behaved like an overbearing parent.
Is this just an isolated case?
It was in Kerala that the dangerous discourse of ‘Love Jehad’ was given communal currency. In 2011, when the ‘love jihad’ campaign was beginning, there was a similar instance of ‘guardian angelic moral policing’ by the Kerala high court when a young Hindu-born woman was sent to her parents’ custody, with their home functioned as a detention centre where the woman was held captive. The couple had applied to marry under the Special Marriages Act.
The complaint presented today at the press conference and submitted before the State Human Rights Commission is heartrending.
Here is the text of the complaint to the SWC:
To
The Chairperson,
Kerala State Women’s Commission.
Sub: The virtual house arrest of Dr Hadiya at the residence of Sri Asokan.
Dear Madam
We, the undersigned, a group concerned about the protection of citizens’ rights in India, wish to bring to your notice what may be potentially a serious violation of such rights, in the case of Dr Hadiya, daughter of Sri Asokan and Smt Ponnamma, a twenty-four-year-old woman, who is presently staying at her father’s residence at TV Puram, Kottayam. The case has received much attention in both the local and national press, and so we will not recount the details. We however wish to express our anxiety at several reports that indicate quite convincingly that her rights as a woman and citizen are being grossly violated in Mr Asokan’s house, and police protection provided is working in effect as a system of incarceration. Visitors to the house who sought to meet Hadiya have been turned away roughly, cases of trespassing have been slapped on them, and Dr Hadiya herself is apparently prohibited from meeting and talking with anyone. In the few instances in which visitors, such as the TV personality Rahul Easwar, have managed to see/reach her, she has expressed extreme distress and agony.
Indeed, Dr Hadiya was virtually dragged out of her hostel and forcefully conveyed to her parents’ home by the police after the High Court annulled her marriage of her choice. This was broadcast on popular channels on 26 May 2017. When six women sought to visit her with Onam gifts on August 30, 2017, he refused to allow them in, and Smt Ponnamma abused them verbally. These women have persistently claimed that they saw Dr Hadiya stand near the window and heard her call for help, and that she complained of being beaten. Though these visitors did not enter the premises and were on their way back, they were slapped with charges of unlawful assembly and criminal trespass at the behest of Mr Asokan.
On 27 August 2017, Dr. Hadiya sent a message to her chosen partner Shafin entreating him to help her. The message was sent from her mother’s phone, and it appears that her access to it was temporary.
In the light of these incidents, especially the extreme responses of Mr Asokan to attempts by concerned members of the public to contact Dr Hadiya, we feel that the case calls for an inquiry by the State Women’s Commission to ascertain whether she is being held there against her will and in violation of her rights to free interaction and mobility. Police protection by itself does not require such violation of the protected person’s rights. The NIA’s inquiry too is no reason for forcible confinement and denial of the company of visitors and friends. There is ample reason to think that Hadiya’s stay at the TV Puram residence is in violation of her rights. From the accounts of those who tried to meet her and were dismissed roughly by local people who seem deeply influenced by Hindu radicalism, her family members, and the police, there is also effort to portray her as ‘mentally imbalanced’.
We, as concerned citizens, urge you to visit the home where she presently resides to meet her and clear the anxiety that we feel about her rights and personal well-being.
Hadiya’s Struggle Against Her Family and the Courts May Soon Resonate With All Indian Women