Hadiya, the woman in the eye of the Kerala love jihad controversy says that she is not free yet. Two days after the Supreme Court ordered to send the 25-year-old to Salem so as to continue her studies, the woman said that her “demand in the court was freedom”, the freedom to meet her husband but she is still not free.
Speaking to the press outside the Sivaraj Homeopathic Medical College in Tamil Nadu’s Salem on Wednesday (November 29), the woman said that the college, to which she has been sent to finish her studies, had no clarity over the court’s order. “We should give them a few more days, and I will be able to tell you whether I am really free or not,” she said. She fears that the college would be “another prison” for her.
Hadiya had reached Salem on Tuesday night – escorted in a police vehicle from Coimbatore amid tight security – to pursue her studies. She spoke at length to mediapersons about her fears and the fact that her request for freedom had gone unheeded.
Hadiya asserted that “every passing second” was a big deal for her and that she wants to meet people who she “loves and likes”. “For six months, I was put up with people I hate (her parents) and they are the people who tried to reconvert me (from Islam to Hinduism),” said Hadiya.
The Supreme Court order on Monday (November 27) made no mention of whether or not Hadiya is allowed to meet her husband, Shafin Jahan. She told the reporters that she has not been able to meet her husband as yet. The apex court had asked the dean of her college to see to her studies and report back if there was a problem. The dean of the Sivaraj Homeopathic Medical College had made it clear that he “would not allow her to meet anyone except her parents”. He had also said that Hadiya will be registered under her Hindu name Akhila Ashokan.
—India Legal Bureau