Hadiya: When Faith Becomes a Question of the Right to Choose

A mosque surrounded by palm trees in Kerala

Who owns an adult’s decision when her parents oppose it and her life enters a courtroom? For Hadiya, faith did not remain a private matter between the heart and God. Her name, dress, studies and marriage became the subject of a public dispute that lasted for years. Through it all, she repeated one point: she had chosen Islam of her own free will.

Born Akhila Asokan, she had followed her mother’s Hindu faith. In her 2018 affidavit, she said Islam had been unfamiliar to her in childhood. She entered a homoeopathic medical college in Salem in 2010 and became friends with Muslim students. Their kindness prompted questions; reading about Islam followed. In her account, everyday friendship became the beginning of study and a personal choice.

A decision made before marriage

Hadiya dated her decision to embrace Islam to 2013. She said she began praying, while keeping her faith private at home after her father objected. In January 2016 she sought formal recognition of the conversion and further Islamic education. Her marriage to Shafin Jahan followed on 19 December 2016, years after the religious choice she described.

That order matters because public controversy often collapsed the two decisions into one. In her affidavit to India’s Supreme Court, Hadiya separated them: she chose Islam after studying it, and later chose her husband. Marriage was not presented as the reason for her faith, and she refused to let other people’s accounts erase her own voice.

When her voice became the dispute

Her father rejected the change, and the conflict moved into the courts. In May 2017, the Kerala High Court annulled the marriage and sent her to her parents’ home. She remained there under police watch until she appeared before the Supreme Court in November.

Before travelling to Delhi, she told reporters at Kochi airport that she was Muslim by choice and had not been compelled. The Supreme Court heard her on 27 November 2017. She wanted to return to her college in Salem and complete her internship. The Court directed arrangements for her return and ordinary treatment as a hostel student. Completing her education remained a clear wish amid the dispute.

In a later affidavit, she again affirmed that religion and marriage were her decisions. She also rejected the idea that Islam had made her abandon her parents. Their claim upon her remained important in her faith, she said, but she could not return to a home that required her to give up what she believed.

The ruling and Hadiya’s voice

On 8 March 2018, the Supreme Court set aside the annulment. Its reasons, issued on 9 April, explained that the Kerala High Court had exceeded the scope of proceedings about her detention by annulling an adult woman’s marriage. It separately allowed any investigation into criminality to continue according to law. The marriage ruling did not settle every allegation raised in the dispute.

The case papers preserve part of her life after the choice: prayer, learning, the wish to complete her studies, and the effort to maintain family ties despite disagreement. These were wishes Hadiya expressed herself. They bring the person back into view behind the case that carried her name.

Sources

Photo: Praswin Prakashan / Unsplash.