Muslim youth forces Hindu live-in partner to convert to Islam, victim files a complaint

Case ID : 242e00e | Location : Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 17 May, 2023

Case ID : 242e00e

Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

17 May, 2023

Muslim youth forces Hindu live-in partner to convert to Islam, victim files a complaint

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion before marriage

Rape for refusal to convert

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Case Summary

Faizan Khan of the Khajrana area in Indore befriended a Hindu girl and coaxed her to change her house and when the duo entered a live-in relationship, he established sexual relations with her promising her marriage. She was working while he was unemployed. He reportedly started pestering her to embrace Islam soon after. When she refused, he started fighting and beating her up. He warned her of dire repercussions and threatened to kill her, her brother, and her mother if she did not obey him. After watching the movie 'The Kerala Story', the victim got the courage to file a police complaint of rape, assault and religious conversion.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

In this case, there are three distinct components because of which it can be classified as a religious hate crime. The first sub-category this case falls under is forced conversion before marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man is in a relationship with a Hindu woman when the pressure to convert her religion begins to manifest. The relationship in such cases is mostly consensual and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship, however, at some point during the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts to force the victim to convert her religion and give up her Hindu religious identity. In such cases, the methods used to force the victim to convert her religion often revolve around force-feeding beef, forcing her to wear hijab, forcing her to read the Kalma or even pressurizing the victim to do ‘Niqah’, which is marriage under Islamic law, with a prerequisite being conversion to Islam. Cases where a Hindu woman consensually converts to Islam in a relationship will be left out of the hate crime database, even though it could be argued in several cases that the conversion was a result of religious brainwashing. The second sub-category is assault or threat upon refusal to convert to Islam. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces threats or assault after she refuses to convert and change her religious identity owing to pressure/force by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressurizing the Hindu woman to convert to Islam and upon her refusal, assaults or threatens the victim. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Cases where the Hindu woman converts to Islam and does not file a complaint about the force or threat, are not considered a part of the hate tracker, even though, it may be argued that the woman was brainwashed or threatened to convert to Islam. The third sub-category is rape upon refusal to convert. When Hindu women are in a relationship with non-Hindu men, there are cases where the woman faces pressure/threats/violence to convert and change her religious identity by the non-Hindu man. Such relationships may be consensual with the religious identity of the non-Hindu man known to the victim. Somewhere along the relationship, the non-Hindu man starts pressuring the Hindu woman to convert. In some of these cases, the association could be non-consensual as well or, the religious identity of the non-Muslim man could be previously unknown to the Hindu victim. As the case may be, in such cases, the non-Hindu man forces himself sexually on the Hindu woman when she refuses his advances and pressures to convert her religion. The rape of the woman is often seen as either a punishment for the woman refusing to convert. Such cases are driven by specific religious motivations and against the religious identity of the victim and are therefore qualified as hate crimes. Since this case meets three specific components of religiously motivated hate crimes against Hindu women, it has been documented here.