Fight for the little child Divya Darshini and her mother and father

We want Revathi to be united with her husband. 180 days of ordeal and mental tension have been heaped upon this young woman and a mother of a one and a half year old baby, Diviya Dharshini. The Malaysian authorities have forcefully separated the husband and wife because the woman dared to become an apostate. When Revathi born of Indian parents who got converted to Islam, decided to be a Hindu and married a Hindu she was advised by the Malacca Islamic Religious Department to make an application at the Malacca Syariah High Court to confirm her status as a Hindu. She did as she was told. But she was shocked to find that instead of granting her wish, the Syariah Court ordered her detained in a rehabilitation centre in Ulu Yam, Selangor under Melaka's Syariah criminal laws for 100 days. To her utter horror the detention was further extended in Revathi's absence for another 80 days because she did not "repent". Meanwhile, Revathi's Muslim mother obtained a Syariah Court order granting her custody of Revathi and Suresh's 15 month old baby. This order was enforced on Suresh's Hindu family with the assistance of the police. Thus the family was torn apart - with the mother in detention, the child with the grandparents and the father who has lost both his wife and his infant daughter to the fundamentalism of a state.



Meanwhile Revathi who is undergoing rehabilitation has just been released and consigned to her Islamic parents in a further move to ward off her husbands legal efforts to get united with his lawfully wed wife. Mrs. Revathi has revealed horrors she underwent during her confinement with the Islamic law enforcers. Here is the Reuters report on the issue:



Revathi was freed on Thursday, a day before the hearing of her husband's application for her release was due to begin. A civil court judge on Friday threw out the application since she had been released. Speaking to reporters outside the court in the city of Shah Alam, 40 km southwest of the Malaysian capital, Revathi said she suffered mental torture while in detention. "They asked me to be a Muslim and they threatened to send my daughter to a welfare home if I defied them," she said. "They also served me beef, knowing I don't take beef as a Hindu." A lawyer for the Malacca Islamic Religion Council, which acted against Revathi, denied her charges. "She can claim anything," the lawyer, Tuah Atan, said. "She has been put under the custody of her parents until she is rehabilitated."



[Please see: Reuters: Malaysian Hindu recounts ordeal in Islamic camp Friday July 6 2007]



Here is the BBC report on the issue:



Revathi Massosai, the name by which she wants to be known, says she was forced to eat beef despite being a Hindu. Miss Massosai was seized by the Islamic authorities in January when she went to court to ask that she be registered as a Hindu rather than a Muslim. A lawyer representing the Malacca state Islamic department responsible for Miss Revathi's arrest, rejected her allegations and said officials believe that she can still be persuaded to embrace Islam. She is adamant that she will remain a Hindu. In the meantime, Miss Revathi and her daughter have been placed in the custody of her Muslim parents.



[Please see: BBC: Malaysia 'convert' claims cruelty Friday July 6 2007]





In fact even as she was going through the ordeal Malaysians, cutting across religion and race organized a prayer vigil for the young wife and mother, who was fighting for her freedom, child and family life. On June 19 in Kuala Lumpur a night time prayer vigil was held to draw public attention to the case of Revathi by such varied groups like the Malaysian Consultative Council on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST), womens rights groups Women's Action Society (AWAM) and Sisters in Islam (SIS).





Once again the family has been cunningly separated by the authorities of fundamentalism. In this era of global vision and humanism, a family has been divided by sectarianism and this sectarian partition of the family has been abetted by a state machinery is a shame. It diminishes the humanity of all of us. Let everyone who reads this, Tamil or Malay Hindu or Muslim, male or female or gender minorities everyone who considers himself or herself as a global citizen belonging to the planet, let everyone sign this petition.



Let Diviya Darshini have a loving father in Suresh and brave mother in Revathi. Let her have a good and healthy and united family. Let us sign this petition for her future and for the future of the children of you and me so that they can live in a world free of bigotry,



Related URLS:



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6278568.stm

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-07-06T163343Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-283488-1.xml&archived=False