Amid the controversy over two Sikh women being allegedly converted forcefully to Islam and married to Muslim men in Jammu and Kashmir, one of them remarried a man from the Sikh community on Tuesday, 27 June, just two days after being 'handed over' to her family by the police.
The row is centred around 18-year-old Srinagar resident Manmeet Kaur. While the family claims that her marriage to 29-year-old Shahid Nazir Bhat was a case of "forced conversion", we have not heard from Kaur herself. While she has recorded a statement with the Jammu and Kashmir Police, the details of the same are not known.
Women, many from the Sikh community, have taken to social media to point out how the incident is laced with misogyny by completely ignoring the agency of a woman and rendering her voiceless.
'Don't Speak for Us': Women Respond
While some men were 'vowing' to keep their sisters and daughters 'within the community', women spoke against misogyny and regressive patriarchal views, maintaining that only one person's voice mattered – the consent of the woman involved.
Others pointed out that no matter which community one belonged to, the onus of honour and shame is always attached to a woman's body.
'Women Will Marry Whom They Want'
In a viral tweet, Amaan Bali, who claims to be an author and entrepreneur, said that 'Girls will not marry Muslims. Live with it. Deal with it.'
Women responded to his tweet asserting their agency, with some stressing that men dictating what women should do must become an offence.
Not Just an Inter-Faith Issue
A few handles also pointed that the Sikh-Muslim row is beyond being an interfaith issue – and a woman has been reduced to a tool to play politics.
A delegation of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) led by its president Manjinder Singh Sirsa arrived in Srinagar on Sunday, 27 June, and staged a protest in the city.
There were rumours earlier that Shahid is a 60-year-old man with two kids but the police dismissed them as “baseless”.
The J&K Police had 'handed over' Manmeet to her parents on Saturday after she recorded a statement before a court in Srinagar, the details of which are not known. Two days later, in a hushed ceremony attended by the elders of the community, she was reportedly married to a Sikh man.
(Corrigendum: An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated Manmeet Kaur's age as 26. This was based on source-based inputs from Jammu and Kashmir. However, her age was later clarified and confirmed by sources in the Jammu and Kashmir police to be 18. The error is regretted.)
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