A girl hailing from Haldwani Banbhulpura in Uttarakhand has submitted an affidavit to the local administration on Friday, informing them that she has converted from Islam to Hinduism. She has further requested the authorities to provide her a security cover. She has also stated that she be called Sunita instead of Shahnawaz in the future.

Media reports say that Sunita along with a few other people came to the City Magistrate’s office on Friday, and informed him about her conversion to Hinduism. Following this, the Magistrate handed over an affidavit, where she wrote that the myopic views towards women in Islam prompted her to learn about other religions. While reading about Hinduism she found that Hindu women have a right to live independently without any sort of restrictions.

The 22 years old girl has alleged that her family members have been harassing her for a long time and had also placed a lot of restrictions on her. Things were allegedly so bad that the family members were even threatening to poison her. The girl as a result has claimed that she has been in hiding in the recent past. She claimed that she was tired of all the restrictions heaped on her, and after expressing wariness about the practice of triple talaq, she decided to become a Hindu.

Following her conversion to Hinduism, Sunita has claimed that her family members have threatened to kill her.

Based on the girl’s claims, the city magistrate Pankaj Upadhaya has instructed the police to carry out a probe in the matter. Upadhaya called it a personal matter of the girl, and said that the police will probe the circumstances of the girl’s conversion, and would also ascertain whether she was forced by anyone to carry out this exercise.

Even though such religious conversions are rare, there have been similar incidences in the past.

In December of 2016 it was reported that a Muslim woman in Ghaziabad, who was a victim of triple talaq, had decided to convert to Hinduism. She was reportedly given triple talaq by her husband in 2014 after which she, a mother of two kids, had to leave their home. She also claimed that following her conversion, she would lead a fight against such evils.

Interestingly, it has also been reported that a family from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, which had converted to Islam about 5 years ago, had decided to reconvert back to Hinduism. As per one family member, he felt uneasy for a long time after converting to Islam, following which he then finally decided to listen to his inner voice and decided to rejoin Hinduism.

Sunita’s demand for security might be justified as such conversions attack severe backlash from the Muslim community.

We had reported how a mob had threatened to kill a Bihar advocate who had accepted Hinduism after renouncing Islam. The lawyer from Bihar’s Begusarai region had supposedly converted to Hinduism along with his sons, after he was being threatened by some radical Muslims for failing to follow the tenets of Islam.

Following the conversion, he was surrounded by a 15-20 strong mob at the town square who apart from hurling vile obscenities, also threatened to kill him.