🧵 The Ayush Malik case reminded me of the Hadiya case. Please read.
In 2016, a 24-year-old Hindu woman from Kerala named Akhila Ashokan accepted Islam after studying the religion and changed her name to Hadiya.
Soon after, she married a Muslim man named Shafin Jahan.
What followed was one of the biggest media and legal controversies in India.
Her father alleged that she had been brainwashed, forcibly converted, and was a victim of so-called “Love Jihad.”
The allegations became national headlines, and the controversy grew so large that even the NIA was brought in to investigate.
In 2017, the Kerala High Court took the extraordinary step of annulling the marriage of two consenting adults and placing Hadiya back under her parents’ custody, despite the fact that she was a 24-year-old adult woman.
But when Hadiya personally appeared before the Supreme Court, she made her position crystal clear.
She stated that she had accepted Islam of her own free will, that nobody had forced her to convert, and that she wanted to live with her husband.
In March 2018, the Supreme Court overturned the High Court’s decision and restored her marriage, reaffirming that choosing one’s faith and life partner is a fundamental right protected by the Constitution.
For years, the public was told that Hadiya had been manipulated and could not make decisions for herself.
Yet after the legal battle ended, she remained Muslim.
Later, she and her first husband divorced due to personal differences. Hadiya then chose to marry another Muslim man and continued living as a Muslim by her own choice.
Even after getting separated from her first husband, Hadiya remained Muslim, which alone undermines the claim of forced conversion.
The Hadiya case is a reminder that people do not convert to Islam because of any coercion or conspiracy. They embrace Islam because they genuinely love and believe in it.