The Kerala Story which was released on May 5 has once again brought attention to the Shafin Jahan vs. Ashokan K. M. case popularly known as the Hadiya case. Ashokan K. M.’s daughter Hadiya, formerly known as Akhila, a homoeopathic medical student, was reportedly indoctrinated and converted to Islam. She then married a Muslim named Shafin Jahan.
She currently works as a homoeopathic physician in Kottakkal, Malappuram district, five years after a Supreme Court decision restored her right to convert to Islam and marry Shafin Jahan. Her father said that Hadiya has given divorce papers to her husband, but she is still under the influence of A.S. Zainaba, a PFI activist who acted as her guardian after she left her house.
The New Indian Express talked to Ashokan K. M. who disclosed, “Shafin left her immediately after the Supreme Court ruled in his favour. I have never met him since 2018. Whenever I visited her, she was surrounded by Zainaba and her people who never allowed me to talk to her in private.”
“The last visit was after the raids on PFI leaders’ houses. Though she was alone, she was trembling with fear. I asked her the reason, but she didn’t reply and she refused to return home,” he further unveiled.
He was glad to see The Kerala Files come out and felt that such films can educate girls and their parents about the deceitful tactics of conversion schemes. He called on religious bodies to train counsellors and use them to teach values to kids so they can avoid falling victim to rackets that drive them away from their parents.
He intended to approach the court for permission to have A.S. Zainaba who boasted of converting 5,000 women to get investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). According to him, it will aid in future efforts to reduce similar crimes.
He asserted that politicians who argue about the basic rights of young women being enticed by Muslim men can never comprehend the suffering of families who have lost their children.
Ashokan K. M. was a driver for the Indian Army till he retired voluntarily in 1996, at which point he was hired by the Fort Kochi Defence Court. He used to live off his Army pension and deposit his pay into Hadiya’s account. He also revealed that he is an atheist.
“Yes, I am an atheist, but I never stopped my wife and daughter from visiting temples. I agree that the lack of spirituality made it easy for the extremists to indoctrinate and convert Akhila. But Christian girls who grow in faith are also being trapped,” he remarked. He mentioned that after converting to Islam Hadiya once told him that she wanted to travel to Syria and pasture goats there.
He had contended before the Supreme Court that it was his attempts that had kept her from being carted into Syrian territory under the authority of extremists.
He speaks to his daughter over the phone but she is still adamant about staying away. He professed that she sought to have his property registered in her name and that he would give it to her if she renounces Islam and returns home.
If not, he aimed to donate it to a charitable organisation. He is concerned because when Hadiya’s mother, Ponnamma, suffered a heart attack in 2019, the former expressed no interest in visiting her. He questions why he should leave his possessions to someone whose religion is more important to her than her parents.
Background of the Hadiya Case
In 2016 Hadiya was reported missing by her father who had filed a police case followed by a habeas corpus petition in the Kerala High Court to trace her. She had left her home for college on January 6 of the same year, dressed in a hijab and was staying with A.S. Zainaba, the president of the National Women’s Front (NWF), the female wing of the outlawed Popular Front of India (PFI). She had embraced Islam and married Shafin Jahan who was an active member of the PFI-affiliated Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). Her family charged that she was brainwashed and married against her will.
She mentioned the circumstances surrounding her leaving and claimed that her father had forbidden her from following Islam.
In May 2017, the marriage was annulled by the High Court of Kerala on the grounds she was a victim of indoctrination and psychological kidnapping, and that their claims of their marriage being arranged through a matrimony website were bogus. The court then handed over her custody to her father, arguing, “As per Indian tradition, the custody of an unmarried daughter is with the parents, until she is properly married.”
Her husband moved to the Supreme Court and in November 2017, the court directed Hadiya to resume her internship, and that she was free to meet whomever she wanted. In March 2018, the Supreme Court restored the marriage, 10 months after the Kerala High Court annulled it.
The Kerala Story is a multilingual movie directed by Sudipto Sen, produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah and features Adah Sharma in the lead role. Its plot follows the story of a group of women from Kerala who converted to Islam, married Muslim men and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
