Woman given three days to choose

Man says his wife was abducted by her Christian parents after she converted.

LAHORE:

An additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) on Monday sent a woman to a shelter for three days so she can get time to herself to decide whether she wants to live with her husband or parents.

Sania Hamid was produced in court on Monday and told the judge that she wanted to be with her husband, who she had converted from Christianity to Islam for. Deputy District Public Prosecutor Malik Amjad Ali advised the court to give her some more time to consider her options.

Sania’s husband Hamid Sarwar had filed a habeas corpus petition alleging that she had been kidnapped and was being detained by her parents who were unhappy at her conversion.

In his petition, Sarwar alleged that his wife Sania’s relatives Shaukat, Yousuf, George Masih, Javaid Masih, Diyal Masih and Babar Masih, residents of Ghurki, a village in Cantt tehsil, had abducted her from his house on July 26 with the help of the Burki station house officer (SHO).

He said that he and Sania had wed on July 4 after she had converted to Islam.

Sarwar said he had visited Sania’s family to persuade them to return his wife, but they had refused. He said that Sania’s life was in danger and the respondents had threatened her. The SHO brought Sania to court on Monday. She said she had converted to Islam and married Hamid of her own volition. She said she was afraid that her life was in danger from her family. The judge, after seeking the legal opinion of the deputy prosecutor, sent Sania to a darul aman for three days so she could prepare herself to make a final statement before the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2011.