Married Hindu woman forced to convert to Islam by Muslim colleague

Case ID : f664525 | Location : Jaipur, Rajasthan, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 31 January, 2025

Case ID : f664525

Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

31 January, 2025

Married Hindu woman forced to convert to Islam by Muslim colleague

Predatory Proselytisation

Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion

Case Summary

A Muslim man trapped a Hindu woman and pressured her to convert in Jaipur’s Ashok Nagar area. The 32-year-old married woman from Jodhpur, who worked at Udyog Bhawan, filed a complaint against her colleague for coercion and harassment. According to the police, the woman became friends with the accused at her workplace. Over time, he began pressuring her to convert. When she resisted, he resorted to obscene acts and threats, warning her of defamation if she did not comply. Fearing for her dignity and safety, the woman approached the police and filed a complaint. Police registered the case and launched an investigation into the matter.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the prime category of- Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the sub-category added is- Harassment, threat, 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. In this subcategory, we would only include cases where the victim was harassed, threatened or coerced to convert. Cases where attempts were made to convert but the victim resisted 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 Muslim man took advantage of the victim’s trust in him to deceive her, concealing his true intention of converting her to his religion. When she resisted, he resorted to obscene behaviour and issued threats, warning her of defamation if she refused to comply. Luring someone under false pretences with the ulterior motive of religious conversion is not only ethically reprehensible but also constitutes a form of harassment driven by hostility toward the victim’s religious identity and this is why this case has been added to the tracker.