Hindu transgender forced to convert to Islam, prevented from working and given death threats for resisting

Case ID : 8da1961 | Location : Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 17 November, 2025

Case ID : 8da1961

Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

17 November, 2025

Hindu transgender forced to convert to Islam, prevented from working and given death threats for resisting

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

Monica Kinnar, a Hindu transgender, was given death threats for working in an area controlled by a Muslim man, without converting to Islam. The dispute started over receiving blessings at an event in Tenduli village in Fatehpur, which led to a conflict between two kinnar groups. The victim stated that after this disagreement, she was threatened and went to the tehsil premises with her companions to seek action from the authorities. According to Monica, Iqbal Haji Kinnar had told her that she would be given an area to work in only if she changed her religion, and she was threatened with death for refusing. Monica said that she is a Sanatani Hindu and could not agree to religious conversion, and that she feared for her safety from Iqbal Haji and the individuals with him. She also stated that she had been warned not to attend events to receive blessings without the accused’s permission. On 18th November 2025, Monica filed a complaint at Bindki police station against Iqbal Haji, requesting strict action, adding that she and her companions would have to organise a protest if no steps were taken to ensure their safety.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

The case has been added as a religiously motivated hate crime under the first primary category: Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the sub-category selected is: Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds, which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision, etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. Such cases, where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion, are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. In this case, a Hindu transgender was coerced and threatened to convert to Islam by a Muslim man. The pressure was not interpersonal; it was directly linked to their being Hindu and choosing to remain so. The threat intended to control the victims' livelihood was not aimed at gaining material benefit, but was rather a punishment for refusal to abandon her faith. When a person or family is harassed in a targeted manner for practising or defending their religion, and the intention is to induce them to change it, such actions constitute hate-motivated coercion. The hate lies in the rejection and hostility toward the victim’s continued adherence to Hinduism. This behaviour of coercion underscores that the crime was not a random or isolated incident but a deliberate effort to impose religious conversion through intimidation and violence. The incident is on the lines of a wider pattern of religiously motivated hate crimes where Hindus are specifically targeted or met with hostility for refusal to convert to another faith or abandon Hinduism. Such actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith, since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised until they convert. This is not random violence; it is systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the harassment over conversion began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the complaint was filed at the police station: 18th November 2025.