Hadiya’s father : Supreme Court decision is welcomed but won’t accept a terrorist in my family!
The parents of Hadiya on Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court decision allowing her to continue her studies in Salem, Tamil Nadu, but reiterated that they did not want their daughter to live with a person who belonged to a “terrorist religion”.
“She has been cheated by two of her friends. She was fine for three-and-a-half years. The father of her friends took her to Kozhikode without informing us. She is our only daughter. My husband had gone through so much pain…he was a soldier who fought for the country…we went through a lot of pain,” Hadiya’s mother Ponnamma said in Kerala House, Delhi.
She said they should have taken a loan to fund her education in Salem. “We struggled to meet the expenses. We thought we would arrange her marriage with a doctor for which we would need money. That’s why we didn’t take a loan for her studies.”
She also said her family did not have any Muslim friends or neighbours. “We never thought those friends (Hadiya’s Muslim friends) would cheat her. We are scared. I still cannot bear the fact that my daughter is married to a terrorist,” she said.
Hadiya’s father K M Ashokan, welcomed the apex court decision and said he did not want a terrorist in the family. His daughter wanted to go to Syria after converting to Islam, but has no idea what it entails, he said.
“Hadiya does not have any idea about Syria, where she wanted to go after converting to Islam,” Ashokan said. “I cannot have a terrorist in the family,” he said.
Asked about his stand on inter-religious marriages, Ashokan said he believed in “one religion and one god”.
The Supreme Court Monday allowed 25-year-old Hadiya to return to her internship/ house surgeoncy at a homeopathy medical college in Salem. Until now, she was with her parents in Kerala.
“It is sad that she had to undergo all these unpleasant experiences because of which her studies were interrupted. But now I am happy as the court has allowed her to study further,” Ashokan told reporters.
He denied allegations that she was kept under house arrest. “She was fully surrounded by police inside and outside the house,” he said.
Ashokan said he was relieved that her studies would continue under the Supreme Court’s observation. “She is under the protection of the Supreme Court as it is monitoring the case. So I am not worried about her security,” he said. He added that they would visit Salem to meet Hadiya as and when necessary and when the court allowed them to. “The court has not given anyone, including Shefin Jahan, guardianship of my child,” Ashokan said.