Muslim man lures a Hindu girl to marry and then forces her to convert
Bardoli, Gujarat, India 
21 April, 2023
Case Summary
A Hindu girl from Bardoli in Gujarat accused her Muslim husband Shoaib Ibrahim Rawat of forcing her to convert and torturing her mentally and physically. The Hindu girl fell in love with Shoaib Ibrahim Rawat while studying together in college. Later, he forced her to marry him by blackmailing and threatening her. In 2019, Shoaib took the girl to Surat and registered a marriage without letting the girl know. After getting married, Shoaib regularly forced the girl to leave Hinduism and convert to Islam. The girl did not have parents and lived with her relatives before getting married. In the initial days of her married life, the girl continued to endure this torture. She then filed a complaint against him at the Bardoli police station. The police are taking further action based on her complaint.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been published here because it satisfies at least one requirement of religiously motivated hate crimes against Hindu women: Forced conversion after marriage. In such cases, a non-Hindu man marries a Hindu woman and the force/pressure to convert to Islam begins after marriage. In such cases, the marriage is consensual in most cases and often, there is no element of the man hiding his religious identity. 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 to Islam after marriage. In such cases, there is application of force by the perpetrator, including, denial of the woman’s religious rights. Some of the means by which the woman is forced/pressured to convert include force-feeding beef, forced to read the Kalma, forced to wear a hijab, forced for 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.
Victim Details
Total Victim
1
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 0
- Female 1
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 0
Caste
- SC/ST 0
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 1
Age Group
- Minor 0
- Adult 1
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Muslim Extremists
Perpetrators Range
One Person
Perpetrators Gender
male
Sources 
