Hindu woman subjected to coercion and violence for religious conversion by her Muslim in-laws following her interfaith marriage

Case ID : d327b69 | Location : Kishanganj, Bihar, India | Date of Incident : Wed, 6 July, 2022

Case ID : d327b69

Kishanganj, Bihar, India

6 July, 2022

Hindu woman subjected to coercion and violence for religious conversion by her Muslim in-laws following her interfaith marriage

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes

Forced conversion after marriage

Assault or threat upon refusal to convert

Hate speech against Hindus

Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith

Case Summary

In the Kishanganj district of Bihar, a Hindu woman named Priya Ghosh (23) faced sustained harassment, violence, and pressure to convert to Islam from her Muslim in-laws following her marriage to a Muslim man. According to reports, the victim, Priya Ghosh, a resident of Ward No. 5, Lohar Patti Road in Nawabganj, had entered into a relationship with a Muslim man named Khushal Ahmed four years ago in 2022. After approximately four months of their relationship, the couple eloped and married on 7 July 2022. Khushal’s family initially opposed the marriage and remained hostile towards Priya because of her Hindu identity, after she moved into her husband’s house. Within a year of the marriage, her in-laws, who were Muslims, began pressuring her to convert to Islam. When she refused, she faced repeated harassment, beatings, and intimidation. Several attempts were made by local panchayats to mediate the dispute, but the hostility continued, and the conversion pressure persisted. The situation escalated further on 5 March 2026 at around 3 pm when Priya was outside the house drying clothes. Her mother-in-law, Halima Khatoon (50), brothers-in-law Ahmed Reza (25) and Mahfooz Reza (22), sisters-in-law Mahasarin Fatima (19) and Khushnama Parveen (32), along with several others, confronted her and reiterated their demand that she converts to Islam. They told her that since she had married into a Muslim family, she must adopt their religion and observe Islamic practices such as fasting during Ramadan, otherwise she would have to leave the house. During the confrontation, Priya and her husband were abused and called “kafirs”, and threats were issued that they would be killed if she refused to convert. Khushal Ahmed attempted to intervene and stated that he had married Priya without regard to her religion and that she had the freedom to practise her own faith. This angered the family members further, and they turned against him as well, calling him a “kafir” and threatening to kill both of them. The confrontation soon turned violent. Priya recounted that her mother-in-law, Halima Khatoon, dragged her by the hair while Ahmed Reza attacked Khushal with a sharp knife. Khushal attempted to defend himself with his hand and sustained a deep cut. Another brother-in-law, Mahfooz Reza, was also attacked with a knife, while Priya was struck on the head with a bamboo stick, causing a severe injury that led to bleeding. Both Priya and Khushal were then thrown to the ground and beaten with kicks and punches. The assault continued until neighbours arrived after hearing the commotion, prompting the attackers to flee while issuing threats that Priya would either convert to Islam or be killed. Following the attack, Khushal contacted Priya’s mother, and the couple were taken to Sadar Hospital in Kishanganj, where they received medical treatment. Fearing for their lives after the incident, the couple left the husband’s family home and began staying at Priya’s maternal home. Priya subsequently filed a complaint against her in-laws at the Sadar Police Station in Kishanganj. Based on her complaint, the police registered an FIR and initiated an investigation into the incident. Priya expressed fear that her in-laws would not allow her to live peacefully and might attempt to harm them again. Police officials confirmed that the case had been registered and that further investigation was ongoing.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, 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. The second primary category selected here is - Crimes against women in relationships and other sexual crimes. Within it, the sub-category selected here is - Forced conversion after marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman, and the force/pressure to convert to any Abrahamic faith, like Islam, begins after marriage. In such cases, typically, two patterns emerge. First, when the relationship is consensual, and the religious identity of the perpetrator is known to the Hindu woman in the relationship. The marriage could be under the Special Marriages Act, where neither parties are required to convert their religion for the marriage to be considered legitimate. While the victim in such cases enters matrimony assuming that religious identity is not a barrier, the non-Hindu man starts to pressure the woman to convert her religion after marriage. The second is when the woman gets into a marriage with the man, pretending to share her faith. Later, when the truth is revealed, the man starts pressuring the woman to convert her religion and give up her religious identity. In both situations, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including the denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, being forced to read the Kalma, being forced to wear a hijab, forced to undergo Halala, etc. There are several instances where, after marriage, the woman voluntarily converts to Islam. Such cases are often argued to be a result of religious brainwashing, however, for the purpose of documenting religiously motivated hate crimes, in the absence of the victim complaining of forced conversion, such cases do not form a part of the database. The other sub-category selected here is - Assault or threat upon refusal to convert. 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 primary category selected here is - Hate speech against Hindus. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. This case has been added to the tracker because a Hindu woman, Priya Ghosh, was subjected to sustained violence, intimidation, and coercion by her Muslim in-laws after she married a Muslim man, Khushal Ahmed, and refused to abandon her Hindu faith. The hostility she faced was not limited to interpersonal family conflict; rather, it stemmed directly from religious animosity and her refusal to convert to Islam. The repeated insistence that she must convert to Islam and observe Islamic religious practices such as fasting during Ramadan demonstrates that the central trigger for the violence was her refusal to relinquish her Hindu identity. Such coercion represents a direct attack on the victim’s religious freedom and dignity, making the incident religiously motivated in nature. Firstly, although the Muslim husband stated that he had no objection to his wife remaining Hindu, the reaction of his family clearly reflected intolerance towards the presence of a Hindu woman within a Muslim household. Priya was repeatedly told that since she had married into a Muslim family, she must convert to Islam. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard her religious faith and embrace another was a direct attack on her religious identity and dignity. It was not a matter of personal choice; it was coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act was not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victim’s Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. Secondly, when she refused to convert to Islam, she was abused, brutally assaulted and threatened with death. Assaulting a Hindu woman specifically for refusing to abandon her Hindu faith exposed calculated malice far beyond domestic strife. Priya was dragged by the hair, struck on the head with a bamboo stick, and beaten, while her husband was attacked with a knife and injured when he attempted to intervene. Therefore, the violence occurred in direct response to Priya’s refusal to convert and Khushal’s insistence that she should be free to follow her own religion. This demonstrates that the assault was rooted in religious animosity, where the perpetrators sought to impose Islam on the victim through intimidation and violence. Often in such cases, physical violence serves a dual purpose: physical subjugation and religious humiliation. The intention was to break the victim down, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, so that she could be converted. This was not random violence; it was systematic, targeted, and rooted in religious animosity. Thirdly, the use of explicitly religious slurs while demanding conversion indicates that the victim was targeted specifically because she was a Hindu woman who refused to abandon her faith. Kafir, in the context of Islam, essentially means non-believers. The word kafir has historically been used to justify violence against non-believers through a religious sanction. In this context, calling her kafir was a way of justifying violence inflicted on her, demonstrating deep-seated hostility towards her religious identity. Fourth, there were also attempts to compel Priya to fast during Ramadan or leave the house, which further illustrates how Islamic practices were being forcibly imposed upon her despite her Hindu identity. Forcing a person to observe the rituals of another religion while simultaneously pressuring them to convert constitutes a form of religious coercion. In this case, the victim’s continued adherence to Hinduism triggered sustained hostility, abuse, and violence from her in-laws, showing that the objective was to either compel conversion or expel her from the household. Taken together, the pattern of conduct, including repeated demands for conversion, the use of religious slurs, threats of murder for refusing to convert, and the violent assault that followed, demonstrates that the victim was targeted specifically because she remained a Hindu within a Muslim household. The attempt to forcibly erase her Hindu identity and compel her to adopt Islam through intimidation and violence reflects a clear element of religious animosity. 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. 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: It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case specify the exact date when the victim’s ordeal began. The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when the victim’s ordeal began rather than when the case was reported in the media. In this case, the victim married on 7 July 2022, after which she moved into her husband’s house, where the harassment and pressure to convert began. Therefore, 7 July 2022 has been recorded as the incident date for documentation purposes. Disclaimer: Hinduphobia Tracker documents incidents where Hindus are targeted by non-Hindu perpetrators. Therefore, the victim count in this case has been recorded as one, namely Priya Ghosh. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker acknowledges that multiple individuals were involved in the assault and abuse of the victim. However, media reports explicitly identify five perpetrators: Halima Khatoon, Ahmed Reza, Mahfooz Reza, Mahasarin Fatima, and Khushnama Parveen. Therefore, the perpetrator count has been recorded as five.