Prime Minister Narendra Modi Government’s ambitious scheme ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ to end gender-based violence and campaign to change societal norms seems to be a misnomer for this well-educated 25-year-old Muslim girl Amreen Zafer of Cuttack.
With an MBA degree and good English education, getting a corporate job with a fat pay packet was not difficult for Amreen. But a mismatch marriage has ruined her ambitious career for she is now a domestic violence victim served with an “impugned” talaqnama by post.
Alleging an attempt on her life by none other than her husband, tortured by her in-laws for more dowry and rape attempts by another relative, Amreen has filed an FIR at the Cuttack Mahila police station in July 2015 after umpteen attempts for reconciliation by relatives and religious priests failed.
“The police are yet to act on my FIR. During this one and a half years, all the accused named in the FIR have reportedly managed to obtain anticipatory bail from courts,” said Amreen to reporters here on Monday in the presence of her relatives, including father Sk Jafurlla, a Doordarshan news reporter.
Amreen said that after her marriage to Gulam Mustafa Khan of the city in January 2013, her father was forced to pay dowry of Rs 4 lakh and gold ornaments of 100 gram. A few days after the marriage when they moved to their workplace in Hyderabad, Mustafa’s parents demanded Rs 3 lakh more.
“When my father refused expressing his inability to meet their demand, my husband and other members of his family started abusing me and assaulted me physically. My husband’s elder brother-in-law even tried to keep illicit relationship with me,” Amreen said, adding that an attempt was made to immolate her in the kitchen.
Seeking justice, Amreen said, she had written about her plight to the Prime Minister on December 11, 2016, and the PMO promptly within a week on December 17, 2016 forwarded her representation to an Undersecretary of the Public Grievances Department of the Odisha Government for necessary action.
“But two months have already passed in the meantime and no action has yet been taken by any of the Governments to redress the grievances of my daughter,” rued Sk Jafurlla, saying that the talaqnama sent to her daughter appears to be legally void as it was signed three months before it was sent and doesn’t bear the mandatory signatures of her witnesses.