Hadiya Shafin, a Kerala woman whose marriage and subsequent conversion to Islam has been a controversial subject, spoke to her husband Shafin Jahan after several months on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old Hadiya, who was ordered by the Supreme Court to resume her studies and return to her Salem-based homeopathic college in Tamil Nadu, was offered a phone by her college principal, to talk to her husband.
Hadiya talked to her husband for a while from my mobile phone, after I, as local guardian, asked her whether she was interested in talking or meeting anybody, said G Kannan, dean of the Sivaraj Homeopathy Medical College, told reporters according to media reports
She was brought to Salem under tight security arrangements on Tuesday.
Earlier on 27 November, while hearing the alleged forced conversion case, the SC bench appointed dean of Salem-based homoeopathic college as Hadiya’s guardian. Next date of hearing fixed for the third week of January.
ALSO READ: I want to meet my husband, says Hadiya
On SC order, Hadiya had said “I had said in the court that I want to meet the people I love. I want freedom. I want the freedom to meet and talk to the people I love”.
“I don’t know whether I’m going to a prison again,” she said about her stay in the college where she has been allowed to complete her course in 11 months. She was talking to the media a day after reaching the college on Supreme Court orders on Monday.
“For six months I only saw and talked to people I didn’t like. They harassed me and forced me. They are the ones who tried to convert my religion. Even my parents had at on one point said that I was a lunatic,” she said about her stay with her parents.
Hadiya’s marriage to her husband was annulled by the Kerala High Court, after her parents approached the court suspecting that their daughter is a victim of ‘love jihad’, the court conceded.
Wife not a chattel: SC
On 27 November, A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud interacted with the 25-year old Hadiya for nearly half-an-hour and posed questions on her life, ambition, studies and hobbies.
When the bench asked Hadiya to name any relative or any near acquaintance to be named as her local guardian in college at Salem in Tamil Nadu, she said her husband could be her guardian and she does not want anyone else in that role.
“A husband cannot be a guardian of his wife. Wife is not a chattel. She has her own identity in life and society. Even I am not guardian of my wife. Please make her understand,” Justice Chandrachud said.
Hadiya Shafin, a 25-year-old homoeopathic trainee, who married a Muslim man after converting to Islam, was produced before the apex court in a case of alleged forced conversion.
ALSO READ: ‘Conversion case’: Hadiya Shafin to depose before SC
The SC is hearing a plea by, Hadiya’s husband, Shafin Jahan challenging the Kerala High Court order of May nullifying his marriage and seeking recall of its order asking the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to investigate the conversion of Hadiya to Islam and her marriage.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Hadiya’s father KM Ashokan have contended that Hadiya had been indoctrinated by radical groups and her consent was not free.
Her father has reportedly told media that Hadiya “does not have an independent mind” as she has been “mentally kidnapped”.
(With agency inputs)