"Stop infantilization of women, free Hadiya," Delhi women's group appeals to CJI

An online appeal has been raised on kafila.online

Pinjra Tod, a Delhi-based collective of students has appealed to the Chief Justice of India to 'Free Hadiya', the woman in the infamous Kerala love jihad case. The group has raised an online appeal deeming the Kerala High court's decision to annul her marriage to a Muslim man as "infantilization of women".

The appeal made by Nivedita Menon of Pinjra Tod says that the Kerala High Court's observations of Hadiya's conversion to Islam and marriage to a Muslim man 'can completely undermine any claim for equal citizenship for women. It adds that the orders are violative of women's fundamental and constitutional rights. In an appeal to the Chief Justice of India, the group has demanded that Hadiya be freed from forced house arrest.

The appeal can be found on the kafila.online.

"The absolute denial of a voice to Hadiya by the Kerala High Court is a matter of grave concern, beginning from the court forcing her to live in a women's hostel under surveillance to the annulment of a consensual marriage on grounds of coercion, despite an adult woman making a clear statement of her consent," the appeal reads. The appeal also takes offence to the fact that courts continue to address Hadiya as Akhila, a name she has already surrendered after she embraced Islam.

"The court only sees her as indoctrinated and influenced Akhila who is not to be left free to decide what she wants in life," the appeal says. Pinjra Tod's appeal comes on a day the NIA has identified a pattern to the religious conversions in Kerala. The NIA has stated that Hadiya's was not an isolated incident.

Pinjra Tod is a collective that fights for women rights. According to their own description, women denied the rights of adult citizens by the restrictive and patriarchal rules of women's hostels is their concern. The appeal demands that Hadiya is allowed to exercise her fundamental right to freedom and is no longer forced to be under house arrested in her parent's care.

OneIndia News