Faryal, Aisha, Dr. Lata.... The Happy Ending?

This all started with the conversion of three female citizens who converted to Islam. Rinkal Kimari embraced Islam and her new name given “Faryal”, Eesha became Ayesha, while Dr. Lata accepted the ideology of Islam and became Hafsa.

As soon as the news was released, in some areas of the country people started celebrations while in some areas people were protesting. The celebrations were because the embracement of Islam is an achievement for the preachers of Islam as well as the Muslims across Pakistan and the whole world. On the other hand the protestors have the opinion that these ladies are forced to accept Islam, and are kidnapped before the conversion. Later a video message was on-aired on all the news channels, this video also become viral on the internet and the social networking websites. According to their video message which was on-aired on the news channels that they converted on their own and want to live their lives according to the Islamic principles. The young lady Faryal Shah who was Rinkal Kumari before said that she had accepted Islam and she has done this on her own, she was not kidnapped but she and her husband were hiding because she had threat from the community that she might be murdered. She read the Kalma on the TV and said she want to live with her husband and requested all to let her live her life.

Surprisingly, this was not accepted by the liberal and secular community as they started protesting against it, they started social media campaign about the awareness that Faryal is actually a victim. It was surprising because the liberal always speak for the “freedom of speech”, “freedom of expression”, “the freedom of so-and-so” but this time when a lady who was converted to Islam by her will and requested all that let her live her life freely with her husband, then what is the reason of their protest.

Another issue which was hot during these days was the appearance of the nationalist parties in Sindh, major nationalist parties in the interior Sindh, started protesting because the ladies belong to Sindhi community. They used the issue for their own objectives but later they failed in making it their own issue and thus the Faryal case came forward independently.

The debate was on channels, on social media and in the public circles, while the matter was in court and on April 17, 2012, news was on-aired in silence, because media don’t want to show the defeat of the liberal and secular lobby and their objectives. The Supreme Court announced that the ladies are free to either join their families or husbands, the ladies chose that they want to live with their husbands.

The media might have tried so hard to save the faces of the secular lobby but the inner hatred of them does not remain inside, after the court decision they started abusive language on the social media. A liberal social activist Marvi Sirmid was found calling name and using abusive language on the topic and to the people who were giving each other congratulation on this news. She was gone extreme in the abusive language that an educated person can’t tolerate it. Despite the media efforts and supports to Seculars they exposed themselves by their own actions.

What was the reaction of media when they accepted Islam and what is media doing when the court decision was announced, a great action of hypocrisy which can not be ignored.

If a Muslim might converted to other religion the foreign authorities, USA & UK might offered him/her security and shelter like they did to Malo’on Salman Rushdi, while the NGOs might had soared their throat by severe screaming on the media. But Faryal is a Muslim now and she did this all by herself.