After Kerala High Court order, kin of Muslim convert forcibly take her home

Source – indianexpress.com

Parents of the Muslim woman convert, whose marriage the Kerala High Court nullified two days ago, forcibly took her home on Friday after she refused to go with them. The court had given the custody of Akhila alias Hadiya to her father, K M Ashokan, while nullifying her marriage with Shefin Jahan (27). It had observed that marriage, the most important decision of her life, could have been taken only with her parents’ active involvement.

The court order had come after Ashokan filed a habeas corpus plea. The court had also asked police to help Akhila’s parents take her home. Akhila, 25, protested against her parents while being taken out of a hostel in Kochi, where she was lodged as per the court directive. She pleaded to the police to allow her to live as per her will.

Sources said that Akhila had turned violent after hearing about the verdict. “She was not interested in going with her parents. In the past five months she was lodged in the shelter, the court had allowed only her parents to meet her. Even then, they could not win her over or change her decision regarding the marriage,’’ a source said.

In a letter to media on Friday, Akhila asked why the court was preventing her from living as per her wishes. “I am a 25-year-old Indian citizen. Why the court put me under house arrest for the last five months? Why the court denied me the right to live as per my faith and likes?’’ she asked.

Meanwhile, Muslim organisations have come out against the high court verdict. The Popular Front of India’s state president Nazirudhin Elamaram said that the government should intervene to save the life of the woman who embraced Islam. Kerala Jam-Iyathul Ulema state general secretary Thodiyur Kunju Muhammed Moulavi said that the high court order should be reviewed.