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India upholds controversial marriage annulment amid ‘love jihad’ inquiry
Widespread shock as supreme court endorses dissolution of union
between woman from Hindu family and Muslim man and orders forced
marriage inquiry
India’s supreme court ruled that the annulment of the marriage between Akhila Ashokan and Shafin Jahan should stand.
Photograph: Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times/Getty Images
The Indian supreme court has upheld a decision to annul the marriage
of a 24-year-old woman in Kerala and force her to live back at her
parents’ house because she married a Muslim man.
The woman, Akhila Ashokan, who prefers to be known as Hadiya, converted to Islam from Hinduism
while studying medicine in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. Last year, she met
Shafin Jahan, a Muslim, and they married in December. Her livid father
went to the Kerala high court demanding that Hadiya be returned to his
custody.
In May, the court nullified the wedding and forcibly sent Hadiya back
to her parental home in Kottayam despite her express wish not to
return. The controversial judgment said Hadiya was “weak and vulnerable,
capable of being exploited in many ways” and that “her marriage being
the most important decision in her life, can also be taken only with the
active involvement of her parents”.
On Wednesday, the supreme court ruled that India’s National
Investigation Agency, which investigates terrorism, must assess whether
Hadiya converted freely to Islam or was part of a “love jihad” – a
phrase used by some Hindu fringe groups to allege that Muslim men are
forcing Hindu women into marriage.
Hadiya has had virtually no contact with anyone outside her parents’
home since May. Local reporters say she has no phone or internet access
and the house is guarded by police officers. A police officer quoted in
the local media said social isolation had made Hadiya depressed. Akhila Ashokan, who prefers to be known as Hadiya, and
Shafin Jahan. Jahan said the annulment of their marriage was ‘an insult
to the independence of the women of India’.
Jahan approached the supreme court to rule on the validity of the
ruling that annulled his marriage. In his petition, he said the high
court order was an “insult to the independence of the women of India as it completely takes away their right to think for themselves”.
But instead of overturning the lower court’s ruling, the supreme court ordered a federal investigation into the union.
In a video clip
of Hadiya in her parent’s house, shot recently by a social activist,
she is heard asking her mother: “Is this how I should live? Is this my
life?”
The supreme court judgment has shocked women’s rights activists. The
court has established a reputation for supporting Indian women by ruling
against honour killings and other customs that deny women the right to
exercise their choice.
Rebecca Mammen, a senior lawyer in India, said she was “simply stunned” by the supreme court ruling.
“It [the marriage] is clearly a consensual relationship between two
adults, totally voluntary – the woman has not complained of any coercion
– I don’t know of any law that allows a court to act in this way,” said
Mammen. “So all I can say that I am really taken aback.”
Vrinda Grover, a lawyer withn a track record of defending women’s
rights, called Hadiya’s confinement “illegal house arrest”. Grover said
it was typical, when an Indian woman transgressed social norms by
exercising her own choice, that society should react by curbing her
freedom.
“Her right, as an adult, to choose her husband irrespective of his
caste or creed or ethnicity and her right to freedom of religion have
been violated,” she said. “The courts are behaving as though she doesn’t
know what’s good for her. The fact of being kept confined by her
parents has deprived her of her personal liberty.”
