Imagine if a Muslim widow had been forced to eat pork and marry a Hindu man. There would be screaming international headlines. But no one will take much note of this.
“Bihar: Hindu widow punished by Sarpanch Aslam for ‘affair’ with Muslim man, fed beef, converted to Islam and forcefully married off to him,” OpIndia, September 22, 2019:
In Farkiya Panchayat under Baunsi Police Station of Taniganj in Araria district, an incident of forced conversion of a widow has come to light. A middle-aged Muslim married man and a Hindu widow were tied with a rope and could be seen beaten with a stick by the villagers in a viral video. They were accused of having an illicit affair. The woman was then fed beef forcefully against her will, converted to Islam and married off to the Muslim man before being cast away from the village.
The video of the crime went viral on social media. The middle-aged man has been identified as one Akbar. The incident happened on the 13th of September. According to reports, when Akbar went to his paddy field, several villagers took him to the woman’s house on some pretext and tied them there. The woman was fed beef and bones by the violent mob. All of this was done under the leadership of the Sarpanch, Mohammed Aslam. Now a concerted effort is being made to hush up the incident.
More than a dozen villagers participated in this atrocity. The father of the victim woman, Shyamlal, has registered a complaint against Mohammed Aslam, and 15 other villagers. He has alleged that his daughter and the man were dragged out of their homes and physically assaulted. Then, they were married off.