The government has condemned the fatwa and the police have offered protection to both women.
A Bareilly-based Muslim organisation Friday issued a fatwa offering a reward to anyone who would stone and cut the hair of two women, including Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s sister, who recently spoke out against triple talaq and nikah halala practices.
The government has condemned the fatwa and the police have offered protection to both women.
On the receiving end of the fatwa are Nida Khan and Farhat Naqvi, who claimed they were “divorced” through triple talaq. In a recent press conference, Khan had come out in support of a woman who had claimed she was divorced this way twice and forced to marry her father-in-law in the name of nikah halala (a law that requires a woman to marry and sleep with another man in order to return to her first husband). Naqvi protested the death of a woman who was allegedly confined to a room without food and water after her husband divorced her.
A statement from the All India Faizan-e-Madina Council, which issued the fatwa, signed by its chief Moin Siddiqui Noori, read, “If these women do not leave the country in the next three days, pelt stones at them, cut their braids and force them to leave this country … If anyone does this, we will reward that person with cash prize of Rs 11,786. This is the announcement and fatwa from our organisation.”
While Noori could not be reached for comment, in interviews to television news channels, he confirmed that he had issued the fatwa.
Earlier on Monday, Bareilly-based Markazi Darul Ifta of the Ala Hazrat Shrine had allegedly issued a fatwa against Nida Khan directing all in the community to boycott her for similar reasons. An inquiry into this by a two-member committee from the state’s minority commission is ongoing.
Talking to The Indian Express, Khan said the fatwas have forced her to be confined to her house.
“I wanted to register a complaint against those who made such announcements (fatwas). But, due to security reasons, I cannot go out of my house. There are a lot of people out there who follow such announcement and take it seriously. The Centre has ordered one more security man for me,” she said.
Farhat Naqvi, who, according to a BJP MLA, had attended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Shahjahanpur, could not be reached for comment.
UP cabinet minority welfare minister Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary threw his weight behind Khan and Naqvi and said there would be strict action if the charges are proved.
“The minority commission’s team would soon submit a report and based on that we would take strict action against the fanatics doing such things. We would also take action against those who are inciting people for violence against these women,” Chaudhary said.
Bareilly SSP Muniraj G said they they have received a a message from Khan on the fatwas and are in the process of verifying the reports.