KOCHI: The movie The Kerala Story, which tells the story of three women who were trafficked to Syria after converting to Islam, is set to release on Friday, bringing the focus back to the Shafin Jahan vs Ashokan K M case. Akhila, who was later known as Hadiya, was allegedly indoctrinated, converted to Islam, and married a Muslim.
Five years after a Supreme Court ruling restored Hadiya’s right to embrace Islam and marry Shafin Jahan, she now lives as a homeopathic doctor in Kottakkal, Malappuram district.
According to her father, Ashokan, she has sent divorce papers to Jahan and but is still under the control of Zainaba, a Popular Front of India (PFI) activist who acted as her guardian after she left home.
“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,”Ashokan told TNIE, sitting in the courtyard of his house in Vaikom.
He welcomed the release of the movie and believes that such movies can create awareness among girls and their parents about the deceptive ways of conversion rackets. He urges religious organisations to train counsellors and deploy them to impart values among children to help them escape such rackets that alienate them from their parents. Ashokan plans to approach the court seeking direction to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to investigate Zainaba’s activities, who claims to have converted 5,000 women. He believes it will help curb such activities in the future.
Ashokan asserts that politicians who talk about the fundamental rights of young women being lured away by Muslim youths, will never understand the pain of those who have lost their children.
He worked as a driver with the Indian Army and took voluntary retirement in 1996, after which he got a job at the Defence Court in Fort Kochi. Ashokan used to credit his salary to Hadiya’s account and lived off his pension from the Army.
“Yes,I am an atheist, but I never stopped my wife and daughter from visiting temples. I agree that 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 said. “After embracing Islam, Akhila had once told me that she was planning to go to Syria to graze goats,” said Ashokan.
He had argued before the Supreme Court that it was his efforts that prevented her from being trafficked to extremist-controlled territories of Syria.
Ashokan maintains contact with Hadiya over the phone, but she continues to refuse to return home.
He shares that she has demanded to have his property transferred to her name and that if she leaves Islam and returns home, he will give it to her.
Otherwise, he plans to donate it to a social organisation. Ashokan is troubled by the fact that when Hadiya’s mother, Ponnamma, suffered a heart attack in 2019, she did not show any interest in visiting her. He questions why he should give his property to someone who values religion above her parents.