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- Gita Bandi
- BBC – Delhi
Image posted, fake images
Protests against the law of “love jihad”
Reports that a pregnant Hindu woman was forcibly separated from her Muslim husband and may have suffered a miscarriage once again shed light on the controversy surrounding a new anti-conversion law in India.
Earlier this month, a video clip circulated in India in which a group of men, wearing orange scarves around their necks, harassed a woman in Muradabad, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
One of the men rebuked her saying, “Because of people like you, this law had to be enacted.”
The men in the video belong to a group known as “Bajrang Dal”, a militant Hindu group that supports the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The law they are talking about is the Law on the Prohibition of Illegal Religious Conversion that the state recently enacted to attack the “jihad of love”, an anti-Islamic term used by Hindu militant groups to prevent the Muslim marriage of Hindu women with the Pretext that this marriage is aimed at forcing Hindu women to convert to Islam.
The accident, which was filmed on video, took place on the fifth of this month. Members of the group turned the 22-year-old woman, her husband and brother-in-law over to the police station, where they sent her to a government shelter and the two brothers were detained in prison.
Days later, the woman, who was seven weeks pregnant, said she had a miscarriage while in detention.
Earlier this week, a court allowed her to return to her husband’s home after she told the judge that she was an adult and that she had married the Muslim of her choice, and that her husband and brother are still in prison until now.
Image posted, Guyanafar Ali
The 22-year-old woman was taken to hospital after complaining of stomach pain
In interviews with local media after her release on Monday, she accused the shelter workers of mistreating her and said they were unaware of her stomach pains, but the shelter denied it.
“When my condition deteriorated, they took me to the hospital on December 11. After doing a blood test, they gave me an injection and after that, I started to bleed, ”says the woman.
Two days later, she added, she was given more injections and the bleeding increased, her condition deteriorated, and she lost the fetus.
However, whether this is true or not, it is unclear what exactly happened at the hospital.
Authorities denied news of her miscarriage on Monday morning, while she was still in detention, and their reports were based on an interview with her mother-in-law.
The chairman of the Child Protection Committee, Fisesh Gupta, denied all reports of abortion and insisted on saying that “the fetus is fine.”
“The seven-week fetus can be seen on an ultrasound,” a gynecologist at the hospital where the woman was treated told reporters. He added that the safety of the fetus can be confirmed with a simple test through the vagina.
However, authorities have yet to comment on the woman’s words since her release. He also did not receive the results of the ultrasound or the details of the medications that were injected.
Five days after she was transferred for the first time to the hospital so far, the condition of the fetus remains unclear, which raises questions and doubts about the validity of the authorities’ statements.
But reports that the young woman may have had a miscarriage sparked outrage in India, with many taking to social media, expressing their anger and blaming the authorities.
In India, people object and blame marriages between two different religions, which are often rejected by the couple’s families.
But the new law, which states that anyone who wants to convert must seek the approval of county authorities, gives the state the power to interfere with citizens’ right to love and choose a spouse.
Whoever violates this law is punished with imprisonment of up to 10 years, and the accused do not have the right to be released from prison on bail.
At least four other BJP-ruled states are drafting similar laws against “the jihad of love.”
Some described the law as retroactive and offensive, and said it would be used as a tool to target partners of different religions, especially those between Hindu women and Muslim men.
A petition has been filed with the Supreme Court to repeal this law.
Image posted, fake images
A march against the “jihad of love” in the western city of Ahmedabad in 2018
At least six cases were reported in a short period under the controversial law passed on November 29 in the state.
Marriage between followers of different religions was prohibited, even if the spouses were adults, and the order was made with the consent of their parents, and Muslim bride and groom were arrested and imprisoned.
The 22-year-old says she converted to Islam and married her Muslim husband in July in Dehradun, a city in the neighboring state of Uttarakhand. But their marriage encountered opposition when they arrived in Muradabad to officially register their marriage contract.
Historian Charu Gupta says: “The biggest problem with this law is that it treats love between followers of different religions as a crime.”
And he adds: “Just as the law denies women the right to act on their own behalf and ignores their free will, is not the woman’s choice of the man she will marry a personal freedom? Even if she wants to change her religion to another religion, what’s the problem with that? “
“It is a rubber law and has very large dimensions, and it gives the responsibility to the accused according to which they prove their innocence. This is very dangerous.”
