KOZHIKODE: While her former colleagues spend the day planning and conducting online classes for their students, 34-year-old Fareeda is fighting for her survival in an incomplete mansion at Muthuvadathur in Nadapuram that belongs to her estranged husband.
Forced to forgo her job as an Arabic teacher at an aided school at Kurunthodi, and sell her gold for the welfare of her family, Fareeda now lives alone without a source of income. After serving three talaq notices — one each in three successive months — through registered post, her husband, Abdulla Poovoli, walked out of the marriage, taking her four children along. They now live in an apartment in Kozhikode.
Moved by her plight, residents of her native place Eramala and Muthuvadathur, have formed action committees to support her. Fareeda said her life was confined to the large incomplete house. “I cannot go out of this house even for five minutes as I fear my husband’s men will lock the house from outside and will not allow me to re-enter,” Fareeda said.
She said Abdulla is an affluent NRI businessman. Her in-laws always treated her badly as her family was not wealthy. “At the time of the marriage in 2003, my parents had given me 60 sovereigns of gold. After continuous harassment by my in-laws, they gave another 17.5 sovereigns,” she told TNIE.
“I got the job as an Arabic teacher in a nearby aided school. My gold was sold to mobilise funds to pay for the post. Though I was appointed on leave vacancy initially, the post was regularised in 2015. But my husband forced me to resign from the job,” she said. She gave Rs 1 lakh she received as salary arrears to her husband. “Now, I have lost the job as well as my gold. I also lost my family and got separated from my kids,” she said between sobs.
Fareeda suffered abuse in silence for her kids
Fareeda said Abdulla used to beat her, but suffered the abuse in silence for her children. “But the torture continued. He wanted to divorce me and marry another woman. He won over my kids by getting them expensive toys and fancy food they asked for. He also turned them against me by telling well-crafted lies,” Fareeda said. In January, Abdulla started to live separately with kids.
“Abdulla sent talaqs through registered post in a bid to bypass the Triple Talaq Law. He aims to evict her from his house. After her ancestral house was partitioned and demolished, she has no house of her own,” said her nephew Azaruddhin K.
Fareeda has filed a domestic violence case before the Vadakara family court. She has requested the court to give her back the custody of the kids as well as a reasonable sum as maintenance.But Azaruddhin said it’s difficult even to present her before the court because they fear Abdulla’s kin, who stay on the next compound, might lock her out of the house.
However, Abdulla said the action committees have ruined his relationship with Fareeda. “I have not tried to evict her from my house. Let the court decide on that. members of the action committees, without even meeting me once, put up posters and made the whole issue public,” he alleged.
Abdulla alleged that it was Fareeda who took steps to end the marriage. He side stepped questions why did he then send talaq notices. “If Fareeda did not want a divorce, why did she accept the talaq notices? The so-called action committee is engaged in a political witch-hunt and that is the issue here,” he alleged.But action committee leader at Eramala, Kottayil Radhakrishnan dismissed the allegations.
“The action committee was formed after Abdulla sent three talaq notices. There is no politics here. All political parties and residents are with the action committee,” he said.