Sikh Woman Remarried: An 18-year-old woman named Manmeet Kaur in Jammu and Kashmir was reportedly handed over to her family members after her alleged abduction. The woman was then married in a gurudwara to a Sikh man on June 27.
While a report by Indian Express with police sources state the woman was legally married to a Muslim man in J&K, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president of Delhi Paramjit Singh gave his statement and claimed that the woman was not married before.
He said, “The girl was married to Sukhbir Singh today. They knew each other and there was no coercion or force used (against the girl).”
“We do not want any (anti-conversion) law. The majority community has to take care of the minority community," he had added. The police reportedly said that Manmeet Kaur in her statement to Magistrate in Jammu and Kashmir High Court had said that she married the Muslim man out of her own free will.
As per a report by The Kashmir Walla, Manmeet Kaur had changed her name to Zoya after marrying a man named Shahid Bhat. The report also carried her statement which she had given in an undertaking in an affidavit. Her statement read, "I have reverted to Islam before more (sic) than a year and am practising Muslim right now (sic), I was influenced by the way Muslim live their life and the teachings of Islam."
Manmeet Singh Sirsa, head of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and SAD, claimed that the woman was “abducted at gunpoint and married to a 60-year-old man." The police have so far refuted the claim as per reports. read more here.
The incident after coming to the limelight showed up in media reports with varying details. The Muslim man Shahid Bhat is currently in the custody of police in Jammu and Kashmir as he is accused of kidnapping the 18-year-old, according to a report by Quint.
Sikh woman remarried in the community: How social media reacted
Social media users which included many prominent personalities, Sikh women and other factions started to post about the incident.
Conversations around a woman's agency and her own will being disrespected took shape. As many alleged it to a case of politicising an inter-faith marriage while many alleged it to a case of 'love jihad'.
Some also expressed their opinions on how the woman was allegedly stripped of her family and made to marry a man who was of her community.
A few users on the microblogging site raised the matter of preserving a community and the marriage of the 18-year-old a 'rape victim'. There have been no reports of sexual crime against the woman.
Here's how people reacted to the incident:
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