A Hyderabad-based activist on Tuesday wished Hadiya and Shafin Jahan on the occasion of their first wedding anniversary, in an expression of solidarity and in sending a "strong message" to the Chief Justice of India.
Taking to social media, Dr Lubna Sarwath has written a long message congratulating the couple.
Calling them an even more ‘rocking couple’ than celebrities, the activist has slammed the courts while extending her ‘best wishes’ to Hadiya and Shafin for a ‘very happy married life’.
Addressing the couple on behalf of ‘all Indians’, Lubna says, “Kerala High Court has Talaqued you both in a single go!!! this shd be more agonizing than in talaq uttered thrice by some arrogant and thoughtless muslim husbands, and much painful than in case of a famous husband who abandoned his wife hanging for years, and the wife still after decades publicly tells that with a single call from 'him' she would 'go to him'; but, according to Constitution, Kanoon (Muslim Personal Law 1937) and according to Qur'an, your nikah (marriage) is in tact.”
Speaking to newindianexpress.com over the phone, Lubna says, “I want to send out a strong message to the Supreme Court. On the one hand, the highest judiciary body is ‘helping’ the Muslim women from the clutches of oral talaq, but on the other hand the freedom of a young woman is also taken away by this very judiciary. The Kerala High Court order which has annulled the marriage of Hadiya and Shafin is on extremely whimsical grounds.”
Lubna has sent her message across various groups including the media and to the Chief Justice of India.
The Kerala 'love jihad' case
The marriage of the couple was annulled by the Kerala High Court last December after Hadiya's father alleged that his daughter was being indoctrinated and may be taken to ISIS territories in Iraq and Syria by extremist Islamic outfits. She was then placed in the custody of her father. Hadiya (who grew up as Akhila Ashokan) had married Shafin subsequently after her conversion to Islam.
Her husband challenged the court's nullification of their marriage and sought a recall of the court order asking the NIA to investigate the conversion of Hadiya to Islam and her marriage.
The Supreme Court last month ordered that the 24-year-old be allowed to complete her medical internship at Sivaraj Homoeopathic Medical College in Salem. Posting the next hearing of the case to the third week in January, it also ordered the Tamil Nadu government to ensure her safety.
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