Hadiya case: interventionby women’s panel sought

She is being held in illegal confinement at her father’s home

Leading academics, social activists, and cultural persons have sought urgent intervention by the Kerala State Women’s Commission to ascertain whether Hadiya, a homoeopathy graduate who had converted to Islam and whose marriage to a Muslim was annulled by the Kerala High Court, was being held in illegal confinement at her father’s home at T.V. Puram in Kottayam district.

A delegation comprising academics and activists J. Devika, Meera Velayudhan, Mercy Alexander, Varsha Basheer, and J. Bhoomi called on commission chairperson M.C. Josephine at her office here on Wednesday and submitted a memorandum signed by around 120 academics and activists on the issue.

Ms. Josephine assured the delegation that action would be taken based on the memorandum which expressed anxiety about several reports that indicated Ms. Hadiya’s rights as a woman and citizen were being grossly violated in her father’s home. Although she had been given police protection, it was ‘working in effect as a system of incarceration,’ the memorandum said.

“Visitors to the house who sought to meet Ms. Hadiya have been turned away roughly, cases of trespassing have been slapped on them, and Ms. 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,” the memorandum pointed out.

On August 27, Ms. Hadiya ‘had 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,’ it added.

An inquiry by the State Women’s Commission was necessary to ascertain whether she was being held at her father’s home 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 was no reason for forcible confinement and denial of the company of visitors and friends, the memorandum said.