Muslim roommate tries to convert Hindu student to Islam, forces her to wear hijab and perform Namaz
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India 
4 August, 2023
Case Summary
A 22-year-old Dalit Hindu student filed a complaint against her Muslim roommate, Anam Syed, and Anam's partner, Hamid Miyan, for pressuring her to convert to Islam. The victim reported incidents of molestation, abuse, and being taken hostage. The complaint was lodged under freedom of religion and scheduled caste at the women's police station on August 5. The accused initially asked the victim to offer Namaz, claiming they were friends, but later coerced her to convert, pray, and wear a hijab. The victim also said that Hamid Miyan molested her, leading to the filing of the case.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
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 have 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 and forceful circumcision. 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 in an attempt to make the Hindu victim abandon his/her professed religion and adopt the religion of the perpetrator. In this sub-category, we would include cases where the non-Hindu perpetrator harassed, threatened or coerced the victim to convert, however, the Hindu victim did not convert to another faith. Cases where the victim was converted owing to the harassment and threats would be documented in another sub-category. 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, the perpetrator exploited the victim's familiarity with her to pressure her convert to Islam and follow Islamic principles like wearing a hijab and performing namaz. Another element in the case is that the accused got the victim sexually assaulted by her brother to intimidate her into acceding to the conversation demands. It is therefore observed that the accused attempted to convert the Hindu victim through harassment. Since the motivating factor of the crime was the religious identity of the victim and the intention of disenfranchising her from it, the case has been categorised as a hate crime.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 0
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint filed
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
From 2 To 5
Perpetrators Gender
both
Sources 
