‘Eminent journalist’ Sagarika Ghose provided a novel way of dealing with the menace of Grooming Jihad on Monday. According to her, the epidemic of Muslim men posing as Hindu to lure Hindu women into marriage and other sex crimes perpetrated against women of different faith by Muslim men with religious motivations can be solved by watching the Turkish TV series Ertugrul.
Sagarika Ghose conveniently twists the legitimate menace of forced religious conversions through grooming into a ‘paranoia’ among Hindu families and Muslim son-in-laws. She remarkably engages in victim-blaming, silencing the victims of heinous crimes in the process. She apparently believes that the lived experiences of women who were made to suffer such a terrible fate are all the consequence of self-inflicted paranoia about “Muslim sons-in-law”.
Such denialism flies on the face of observable facts. Take the example of the victim from Kanpur. She was lured by a Muslim man posing as ‘Sachin Sharma’. Her name was changed to Zoya, she was forced to eat beef and then, she was forced to have sex with a Maulvi. When she became pregnant, an illegal sex-determination test was performed and when they realised the baby was a girl, they decided to keep the baby as it could be ‘used’ in the future.
Sagarika Ghose wants us to believe it is all just ‘paranoia’ because she enjoyed watching good-looking men in a Turkish TV series. In another such case, a minor victim was lured by one Golu Khan by posing as a Hindu and ultimately forced her to convert to Islam and perform Nikaah with him. He went to the extent of wearing a Tilak and Kalawa in order to make his pretence as a Hindu more convincing.
In another case, a minor girl from Ballia was lured by Imran after hiding his religion. He managed to elope with the girl but her relatives with help from relatives managed to track them down. He was arrested by the Police in the end and a case was registered against him under relevant sections of the IPC. In yet another case, a Muslim man engaged in a relationship with a Dalit Hindu woman by posing as a Hindu and later, told her that she had to convert to Islam if she wished to get married.
The list of such cases is endless. Ultimately, political parties have been forced to take cognizance of the phenomenon and governments in numerous states have decided to enforce legislations in order to combat the crime. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and other states have either passed such laws or are in the process of passing them.
But the denialism on the part of people like Sagarika Ghose continues unabated. Imagine the monstrosity of it for a moment. First, they deny that such crimes are occurring despite the innumerable cases that have surfaced in recent times. Then, they parade these very cases and the outrage against them as evidence of the alleged bigotry of Hindus and shame them.
It appears as if Sagarika Ghose wants the Hindu community to abandon women to such terrible fates and as evidence, she produces TV series that was produced to glorify a character from Islamic history. It is a bizarre argument that she makes and one that defies comprehension. She is so desperate to shame and insult Hindus that she is more than willing to sacrifice Hindu women at the altar of Jihad.
Indeed, the sin that Sagarika Ghose is committing is no less than those who brainwash women in order to lure them into conversion to Islam. She relies on an unrealistic fictional depiction of historical events in order to whitewash the suffering of Hindu women and the crimes that perverts commit. It is the most shameful method of gaslighting the victims of Grooming Jihad. More than that, she is providing more material to further brainwash women and open an opportunity for their grooming.
Feminists are often heard saying ‘Believe All Women’ but it appears that Hindu women who are victims of Grooming Jihad do not qualify for that. Much less believing them, it appears that they cannot even hear the heart-wrenching stories about the persecution they suffered. They will come up with bizarre excuses such as a TV series in order to blame the very victims and further mock the hardships they endured. It only reflects the utter lack of moral fortitude and the depravity that has come to encapsulate liberal discourse.