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4 women convert to Islam, seek protection from parents

Saturday, 17 November 2007

Madras, India November 17: Fearing harassment from relatives and villagers for converting to Islam, four young women, including three sisters and their friend, hailing from Pasupathi Koil and Chakrapalli villages,

about 15 kms from the famous temple town of Thanjavur in the southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu, have moved the Madras High Court seeking protection. Stating that their parents and the Ayyampettai police were trying to prevent them from embracing Islam, the four women moved the High Court.

The women claimed they had gone through the conversion ceremony organised by a socio-religious organisation, the Tamil Nadu Tawheed Jamaat, on November 7.

"The villagers, particularly the local BJP unit, have turned the issue into a political one and are trying to get us back home and prevent our conversion," Lokeshwari (22), now Sumaiya (after conversion), told The Indian Express. Her sisters, 20-year-old Ambika (now Afreedha), 19-year-old Sharmila (Shamila) and friend 20-year-old Kaliaselvi (Shakira) also went through the conversion, she said.

The women said as they lived in a Muslim-populated area, there was a strong Islamic influence on them.

Lokeshwari worked in the Razia clinic along with Kalaiselvi and claimed to have had access to the copy of the Quran, "reading it thoroughly" for the past two years.

"I was fascinated by the religion and was keen to convert. My relatives accepted it initially. But then they started wedding preparations for me to a Hindu boy. So, in the early hours of November 7, we fled to (nearby) Kumbakonam and took a car from there to Madras and reached the Tamil Nadu Tawheed Jamat," said Lokeshwari.

The women then moved the Court on Thursday, seeking protection. They claimed they had approached the State Human Rights Commission with their case but they were turned away.

Meanwhile, back in their villages, the local BJP unit reportedly observed a bandh (Strike) on November 12 demanding that the women be brought back home. The women said as they were majors, they had every right to choose the religion of their choice and sought a Court direction to the Madras Police Commissioner to provide them security and protect them from their parents and the Ayampettai police.

Saying they wanted to be in Madras until they decided what to do with their lives, the women urged the court to restrain their parents and the police from forcibly taking them back home.

"The conduct of their parents and the political parties created an apprehension that they were not safe," the women said, adding that they converted because they wanted to and no one had forced them. "But people in my village are threatening to kill us," they added.

The Court directed the women to appear before it on November 22 and file individual affidavits on their situation. - Agencies