Sikh women marrying Muslims leads to disputes in Kashmir
Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – For more than a week now; a section of the minority Sikh community in Indian-administered Kashmir has been protesting against what they call the “forced conversion” of two women who married Muslim men; a claim denied by police officials and the men’s families who say the unions are interfaith marriages. Manmeet Kaur, a 19-year-old Sikh woman; and her 29-year-old partner Shahid Nazir Bhat; both residents of the Muslim-majority region’s main city of Srinagar; fled their homes on June 21, according to their families and the police.
After the woman’s family filed a complaint. Police officials told the couple turned themselves in on June 24 and have been detained in different police stations in Srinagar. Two days later; Manmeet gave her statement to a judge in a Srinagar court; denying her family’s allegation that Bhat kidnapped her. Officials said the two married in an Islamic ceremony held in secret after Manmeet converted and changed her name to Zoya. As she was giving her statement before the judge; scores of Sikh community members; along with Manmeet’s parents; gathered outside the court premises; demanding that she be handed over to the family.
In love for 15 years:
Moreover, The other Sikh woman at the center of the ongoing storm is 29-year-old Danmeet Kour; who has been in love with her high school classmate; a 30-year-old Muslim named Muzaffar Shaban for 15 years now. In a telephone interview, Danmeet said she married Shaban in June 2014. “I had converted to Islam in 2012, two years before I married my boyfriend. It was the wish of both of us, no one forced me. Furthermore, It was my decision because the Indian constitution grants me this right to choose my partner”.
Furthermore, Danmeet, who has a master’s degree in political science; said she left home on June 6 to live with Shaban; telling her family not to look for her as she was now going to live with her husband. Moreover, Danmeet said her family took her to Punjab; the Sikh-majority state in India’s west, where she alleged that “multiple groups met her and tried to influence her decision and forced her to give a statement against her husband”.
‘Communal divide’
Secondly, Sikh leaders in Indian-administered Kashmir, however, caution that non-local community leaders such as Sirsa, who is close to the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are using the controversy to create a “communal divide and hatred in the region”. Furthermore, While Jagmohan Singh Raina, a local Sikh leader, has demanded a law to ban “forceful conversions”, he also feels “outsiders are trying to exploit the situation between the two communities in the region”.
Say what you want, but every community freaks out when “their” women decide to marry outside of their faith. It’s not about Sikhs, not Hindus, not Muslims. The walls that hold our communal faith are generally very very fragile & the burden of this weak structure falls on women
— Ashwaq M (@ashwaqM) June 30, 2021
Thanking Sangat for extending such a welcome to Sikh daughter, Manmeet Kaur from Srinagar, who was forcefully converted but she has regained her freedom. She has come to Delhi with us today to take blessings&thank Sangat for supporting her family: Manjinder S Sirsa, SAD leader pic.twitter.com/uKYoDysmFM
— ANI (@ANI) June 29, 2021
I am a Sikh woman who married out of my choice to a Non Sikh.
Who are you to tell Sikh women whom to marry? pic.twitter.com/F5Msv2Lhsb
— Simrat Kaur ☬ (@SimmiKaurKhalsa) June 29, 2021
Lastly, In November last year, the state also became the first to pass legislation banning “unlawful conversions” by force; fraudulent means, or marriage. Moreover, That law was brought into force after some Muslim men in India were accused of “love jihad”; an Islamophobic conspiracy theory propagated for more than 10 years by India’s right-wing Hindu groups that accuse Muslims of luring Hindu women into marriages to forcefully convert them to Islam.
