MEERUT/KOLKATA: Nusrat Jahan, the Trinamool Congress MP from Basirhat , on Saturday countered a Muslim cleric’s allegation that her appearance in Parliament with sindoor on her forehead and a mangalsutra was “un-Islamic behaviour” by retorting that she will only go by what her heart says.

Mufti Asad Qazmi, the chief cleric of Jamia-Sheikh-Ul-Hind Madrassa in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh has said that he doesn’t recognise the marriage. “Even as an actress, she had been doing all that is certainly not right in the eyes of Islamic law but these actors do what they want to. There is no point in talking about those issues. But now she has married a non-Muslim and reached Parliament putting sindoor on forehead and mangalsutra around her neck. A Muslim should only marry a Muslim. We do not recognize such marriages,” Qazmi said.

“I haven’t heard of any fatwa on me. We are citizens of new progressive India where all rituals and culture need to be respected. Why divide people in the name of God. Yes, I am a Muslim and also a citizen of secular India. My religion doesn’t teach me to divide people in the name of God,” the Trinamool Congress MP said.

Nusrat also held that no one should come in the way of how people should dress. “It is my choice to speak in Bengali and put sindoor on my forehead. I would go by what my heart says. I do not care who speaks what in the name of religion. After all, it’s my life and I should have the choice to lead it. I am educated enough to lead the life of the new-age Indian woman,” she said. The recently married actor took oath in Parliament dressed in a sari, donning a mangalsutra and wearing sindoor.



In Video: Nusrat Jahan hits back at cleric, says she's a citizen of progressive India