Another February 24
Today is February 24. Last year, on the same date, Rinkle was picked up from her house. Her house was left in a state that suggested that a burglary had occurred and valuables were stolen. Her dupatta and her chappals were left lying on the doorstep.
When she was first presented in a court in Mirpur Mathelo, she requested to be returned to her parents. The court, instead of listening to her, replied that she ‘was confused’ and therefore, should spend time reconsidering the predicament and handed her back to her abductors. It was as if the court was confused itself.
She was presented in court again on Feb 28, where, in her statement, she recited the kalma and became ‘Faryal Bibi’ from Rinkle. The entire process took less than 10 minutes. Her conversion to Islam was greeted by aerial firing by her captors who had brought her to court surrounded by armed guards. This was a new victory for them.
‘Faryal Bibi’ was then taken to Dargah Bharchondi’s seat-bearer and PPP’s Mian Mithu, while the gunfire echoed across the town. She was his guest and was taken to and from court surrounded by his guards. Actually, this victory was not the only feather in the dargah’s cap. The dargah’s deeds, ranging from the Manzalgah mosque that became famous for its role during the pre-Partition communal riots in Sindh to the assassination of the singer Bhagat Kunwar Ram of the Hindu faith, were oft repeated. The dargah commonly converted non-Muslims to Islam before the Partition and this exercise continues steadily today.
This dargah is an ideal example in endeavours to increase the Muslim population from every corner of Sindh, starting from the Thar Desert to Kashmore. Then, how was it possible for the tilak-anointed schoolmaster, Rinkle’s father to fight for his kidnapped daughter’s return in this godsend Islamic republic state? Such news usually reaches the ears of human rights organisations or the media, a nutcase or two then run towards the news source just like the mullah runs towards the mosque to take up the case and bring it to justice. Bibi Faryal was familiar with Islam. Either Naveed Shah’s ishq was at its peak or the matter really was one of kidnapping and force that was being blamed upon Bharchondi’s seat-bearer Mian Mithu.
When the hue and cry became unbearable, the dargah’s owners brought Bibi to Karachi Press Club (KPC). But what was she going to say here? The dargah’s guards sat in their vehicles outside while the owners sat beside her inside. Bibi Faryal, fearfully, publicly repeated the kalma and revealed herself to the masses. The incident fanned criticism and protests by the civil society further, due to which, the high court was forced to take notice of the case. In the chambers of Justice Bajwa, a Sindh High Court judge, Bibi said that she ‘had been wronged’. It is unknown whether she was able to say anything else or not.
On March 26, she kept shouting that the court should ‘send her back to her mother instead of the shelter house in the court no. 1 of the Islamabad High Court (IHC). But just like the judge in Mirpur Mathelo’s court, the IHC judge mistook her yelling for anxiety and sent her to a shelter house instead of back to her mother so that she may, once again, reconsider her ‘predicament’. Unable to hug her weeping mother (as she was led away by female police women as if she were the criminal), at least she managed to tell her one thing,
“Mother, who are you asking for help? This country belongs to the Muslims. Everyone from the bottom to the top is an accomplice.”
Rinkle Kumari’s mother seeks justice at the Karachi Press Club. -Photo by author
This wasn’t the lament of the newly-converted Faryal but that of Rinkle whose voice had been suppressed amidst the noise in the courtroom. The next statement was taken in the registrar’s office instead of a courtroom and the newly-converted girl was sent home under police custody.
It was an end to the court’s story but just the beginning of a tale of pain and despair as no one expected any justice from any court. After Rinkle, it was the turn of Asha, Lata, Arvna, Devi and Bhagwanti. The chain of such events had changed so much.
Once, an uncle of another girl Durga came and showed me her birth certificate. Her date of birth was 2001. She was a minor who had been kidnapped from the street. About three days later, the news that she had converted to Islam was published in local newspapers. Her upset uncle asked me if there was any court in this land that would fight his case.
The grandmother of another minor girl, Vijanti from Umerkot who had been raped, broke down as she said that she would migrate to India with her granddaughter and their entire family if they didn’t get the justice they deserved. Their food and water was diminishing. Meanwhile, the Pakistani nation had wrapped itself in the coat of the Muslim ummah and had begun travelling on the road where there was no section for the identification of non-Muslim Pakistanis.
Another February 24 has arrived. The students of influential dargahs and/or madrassas are entering their youth. O you kafirs, protect your girls! The era of ulfat-e-Islam is about to begin for them as the list of young girls, newly-converted to Islam, is being prepared.
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The writer is an activist and columnist who struggles to fit in society.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
This is distressing, but not surprising. I think the Hindus and Sikhs should simply migrate to India. The syncratic culture of the past has no place in present day Pakistan, and tolerance of the other is at an all time low.
amar sindhu has wrote truth,,,Rinkle was on gun point,,, if she wants to change his religion volunterly than no one has to discuss upon this but this is real case and injustuce with her
We Pakistanis have lots of spare time and we probably think we can take take some leverage by converting people of other religion! However, we don’t have time to correct ourselves & billion of other muslims that have already piled up. What a strange paranoia!
Islam was enforced by sword in the early centuary
Good job! I’m sure you had alot of thought behind this. I’m sure Christianity just spread out of love and harmony.
Your comment is out of context.
Till the last few centuries, the ‘sword’ was the only force that spoke. It is not unique to Islam.
What is true, though, is that Islam failed to keep pace with humanity during the last few centuries.
Though every thing is possible in Pakistan. But the writer should have shared the entire story to its readers. There are no facts in the article and it merely touches the motives of why a girl was randomly selected from the village. I would agree that in Pakistan there are NO right for minorities but then there are NO rights for majority as well. Its a rich man’ world. But again, more details would have been better.
People forcing others to adopt their religion are in fact fools. If someone does not accept religion from heart, he or she is not actually converted. Who ever does this shameful act is a sheer disgrace for the entire humanity. If things are actually as presented in this story, our courts have been unacceptably irresponsible in discharging their duties. Supreme Court must take notice of this issue immediately. and I’m sure they will do that.
Court should be ashamed of her way of dealing with this human right case. Islam does not allow this type of injustice. The Chief Justice of Pakistan Supreme Court should take proactive action on this to decide for ever that in Pakistan all people are treated alike regrdless their faith. What will be attitude of these Dargah people, in case someone starts converting muslim youth to nonmuslim through force in nonmuslim countries?
And where is this all powerful chief justice when the courts under him take part in such crimes. Is there no God in Pakistan who will listen to these helpless girls.
Good question. It proves there is no God. If there were such a thing as kingdom of God, this girl and her family wouldn’t have been dehumanised like this. From today I am an atheist.
very nice article about the true fact.
Pakistan you need to do something about that….
Pakistan was never known for such religious issue, being muslim i grew with hindu friends, we never thought we are different people, forceful conversion to islam is never welcome by any sensible Pakistani and even religion itself, as the country is suffering with religious disaster, one can expect any thing from shrine, madrassas and courts… i am certainly feeling ashamed of these incidents.
This is ridiculous. Why would anybody force anybody to convert? We have enough people converting to Islam every other day, we do not need to force anyone…and we also have enough population, we do not need to increase it by this means…
As far as I know, if a person recites the Kalima under compulsion, it does not make him/her a Muslim. It would not be legal for any Muslim man to keep marital relations with her then, because she would still be a Hindu…
I truly fail to understand why anybody would force anyone to convert. How would they make them say the prayers then? Stand at their head five times a day with a danda at hand or what? This is truly ridiculous…
Thanks to Dawn for publishing it.
Popular narrative in Pakistan is that “All” such incidents are girls eloping with their lovers. Even when the girls are held back with captors for more than a week before bringing them to court in a gauntlet of gun wielding and firing “supporters” of Islamic conversion. The court sends the girl as young as 13 years old back with the husbands. In rest of the civilised world, even a consensual sex with a minor is persecuted as “statutory rape”, but then we are not talking about law as it applies to Hindu victims in Pakistan.
Asma Jahangir, human (?) rights activist and legal expert from Pakistan, stated in an internview with Hindustan Times that this is voluntary elopement of girls. She seems quite informed person and should know that there is something called Stockholm syndrome and girls parents should be allowed to let an expert state their opinion.
Even when the girl says that she has been abducted (happened about six months ago) and the judge allows her to return to her parents, it is pity that he told the father “You got your daughter back, what else do you want?” Is it not judicial obligation to deliver justice by punishing the assulting criminal.
I urge pakistani hindus to migrate to India.
–An Indian muslim
This is heart breaking.My prayers for minorities in Pakistan,May god protect them.
Thats not the answer to these problems…If people mindset wont change they will find another reason to harasse even their own community..Its all about power.I am powerful then you..I am better than you..thats has to change..
There was a video of that girl, Rinkle on one of the news channels in which she was invited to debate with few people in a talk show program, she clearly stated that she accepted Islam out of her own free will and married on her own as well.
Actually, there was no such mention of claimed in court to be returned to her parents. The rest maybe or may not be true. I do agree, there needs to be a process for such actions through the court and proper due diligence be carried out in the presence of both religions representatives.
The day Pakistanis justified atrocities and injustices against helpless minorities using religion as a shield, is the day when Allah Subhanu wa ta’ala took away His rahm on this nation. May Allah guide this nation
A minor abducted,judicial system failed,religious parda…i dont get it when the superstitions will die to get us rid of religions :/ people should realise that education and science are what saved us for ages . what morals are the schools teaching in pakistan..my heart weeps for rinkle!!
Just think about it guys, if it were exactly the opposite scenario. Same story but just interchange the religion and you would know the problem in you.
Forced conversion is not permitted in Islam and any one who is following this practice is going against the teachings. I personally believe that the other religions are doing this more frequently and blaming muslims for this. The writer needs to reconsider her article keeping in view the decisions of the court.
why the insistence to convert any body? islam has to become tolerant if it wants more followers!
Salute to Dawn for being brave
Very daring article. Dawn has its own standards. I wish you come up with Indian edition.
Indeed it is a matter of great shame for all of us who belong to a religion who denounce use of force in any form but unfortunately now this religion of ours is in the hands of those who don’t know iota of religion. They just use this as a source to prove their might.
No wonder,muslims are despised by non-muslims.
if a muslim girl was converted by hindus in India,can you imagine what the faith bearers of Islam would have done in this land of the faithful?
But then , hindu or muslim, a woman’s life is cheap. Who cares?
If the story, as told, is true, we should all be up in arms. If not, Dawn should be ashamed. Dawn cannot avoid its journalistic responsibilities just by saying that ‘the views expressed are those of the bloggers’. The issue here is not just the views of a writer, but whether what is described here is truth. I do not recall any reporting from the courts as described in this ‘feature’.
one in Pakistan takes the responsibility. We just pass the bucket. Recently I was watching on ARY channel where a person issued the fitness certificate of a vehicle which was in police custody. To top it off the driver license office in Clifton issued the driver license to a blind men. It is money that talks and rest walks. We live in the most corrupt society.
Unfortunately Laws in Pakistan are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught. Welcome to the Pak land. The land of the pure.
All material is available on the net. Pakistan’s own muslim bloggers reveal the tale of Rinkle. Interview of Miyan Mittho is available on You Tube. All one has to do is search.
There are no facts here. Just the usual play on emotions Dawn indulges in.