'The Conversions' film on love jihad - film that touches your raw nerves & shakes your conscience

[Satya D]

'Love Jihad' is slow genocide happening all across Bharat.  Daily young girls are lured into relationships and then stabbed, burnt down, their throats slit and even gunned down for not giving in to advances (please see articles at the end). 

The pre-screenings of 'The Conversions' film that captures this with a riveting story that would touch our raw nerves and shake our conscience to the deepest core is happening now across several cities in the US.  (It was already screened to full audiences in NYC and DC).  It is set for full release on April 22nd.     The trailers for the film are on their website here.

Links to reserve tickets for remaining pre-screenings (NY & DC already done with housefull audiences!).

City	Date/Time	Link to book tickets
Chicago	Apr 2nd, 12:30 CST	https://www.tugoz.com/events/theconversionfilm/chicago
Atlanta	Apr 3rd, 2:45 EST	https://www.tugoz.com/events/theconversionfilm/atlanta
Dallas	Apr 9th, 11:30 CST	https://www.tugoz.com/events/theconversionfilm/dal
San Francisco	Apr 9th, 12:00 PST	https://www.tugoz.com/events/theconversionfilm/ca

https://www.firstpost.com/india/the-conversion-how-a-new-film-on-love-jihad-touches-raw-nerves-and-shakes-ones-conscience-10423091.html

First Post - ‘The Conversion’: How a new film on ‘love jihad’ touches raw nerves and shakes one’s conscience

There is nothing wrong if two adults consent and marry, but there is everything wrong if deceit and fake love is used to convert a woman

Satya Dosapati March 02, 2022 18:21:21 IST

We all hear about love jihad which is an issue that comes often in the news.  Few states in India have laws relating to it and the topic is covered in a lot of chatting that goes on in the social media.   However, unless you see the upcoming film ' The Conversion', the full impact cannot be grasped by an outside observer.  It is like being hit by a ton of bricks that is terrifying and leaves you shaken.   Mercifully the film has a reasonable ending but the reality is perhaps far more bitter.    The film makers seems to have taken enormous pains to script and enact the whole process of 'love jihad', how it starts and what it leads to, usually a terribly helpless situation for the girl.  

This is not unique to only Hindus, in fact news reports have covered how Christian girls are victims in states like Kerala and in Mangalore.  According to a Hindustan times article, between 2006 and 2009 there were 2,868 Kerala Christian girls who were victims of love jihad as reported by the Commission for social harmony and vigilance of Kerala Catholic Bishops council.    It is not even unique to Bharat, but also in countries like the UK where Sikh and even white girls were trapped  and abused.   In Rotterdam, UK, many Pakistani origin Muslims abused 1400 young white girls.   Recently an orthodox Jewish woman in New York was duped by a Lebanese Muslim who convinced her he was an orthodox Jew and this is being investigated by FBI and other agencies.   Just few days ago in Khandwa Madhya Pradesh, a 15 year old tribal girl in Kandha, Madhya Pradesh was duped into marriage, was gang raped which they video taped and then pressured to accept Islam.  

 

What is 'love jihad'?  According to a Hindu activists portal it is  “a holy war carried out by Muslim males/females using deceit (hiding their identity) and love as a weapon to marry non-Muslim persons with the sole purpose of converting them to Islam.”   There is nothing wrong if two adults consent and marry but there is everything wrong if deceit and fake love is used to capture and convert.   Violence against women happens in all communities.   However, there is something sinister about faking for purposes of conversion and the eventual abuse that follows because the marriage is not out of true love.  

The movie does not just cover the act of duping, feigning, marriage and conversion.  It goes far deeper on certain practices of Islam in India such as Triple Talaq, Nikah and Halala that gives excuse for male family members to commit sexual abuse.   When the intent of marriage itself is based on fake premises, there is a great chance for the girl to be abused.   Worst, when the girl's family disowns her, the girl is completely at the mercy of the abusers.    There is no one to check the welfare of the girl and report any abuses and the girl could be virtually a jailed victim, deprived of her humanity.   Many times the girl is terrified  into accepting her fate with little future and cannot even dare to request help from friends and relatives.

In covering the whole contours of love jihad and certain Islamic practices that abuse women,  this movie has made enomous contribution to highlight this issue.  We should not be shy of discussing things that are not comfortable.  It is such healthy discussion that lead to abolishment of Triple Talaq.    We need to investigate the institutional practice of love jihad, the practice of Halala and  even that of polygamy.  It is a tragedy that is happening even in the 21st century and the longer we wait to openly discuss and address the more difficult it would get.    There needs to be very effective punishment to not just those who perpetrate this crime but also those who support it.    The movie also teaches a very important lesson to girl's parents that rather than disowning your child, it is important to accept and be engaged in their child so that there is no abuse and perhaps recognize her mistake and come out of it..

This movie needs to be seen by every young girl and parents, administrators and lawmakers so that we can discuss and get rid of the country of this scourge against young women.  It is expected to be released in April this year

The writer is a US-based activist who has played a critical role in the introduction of a paper trail for India's Electronic Voting Machines called VVPAT. Views expressed are personal.

RECENT SAMPLINGS OF LOVE JIHAD (use the link below to get to the stories)

https://www.opindia.com/tag/love-jihad/

Women Narrate ‘Love-Jihad’ Incidents Suffered By Them | ABP News

https://youtu.be/n-CV9BnyzTs

On Tue, Mar 15, 2022 at 1:03 PM Thirumala Raya Halemane <trhal...@gmail.com> wrote:

Subject: Hijab issues = showing sensitivity for women’s modesty is an important and essential trait of Indian culture and civilization 

Fwd
2022 March 15
Me: Hello HarishaNNa.. although I have read only the headlines including here from you, it is an .. interesting verdict I think from the Karnataka High Court essentially upholding that the school authorities have the power to set the dress code in their premises ..

it is fine in a sense because the minority religions have their own schools and they can have their own rules requiring hijab also.. so, in that sense they are already well accommodated, much better than how Hindus are accommodated in Pakistan say...

However, this whole issue and conflict avoids and sidesteps the sensitivity to women part of the real crux of the matter and why hijab, face or head covering etc are there in various cultures and is considered as an essential part of women’s modesty, shyness, self-esteem and men are expected to view that respectfullly ..

and for women, just the presence of the opposite sex within their environment is a disturbance, good or bad..

to say it in another way, dress is really a personal individual matter, but guidance is fine, and when no exceptions are allowed or better understanding cannot be reached, conflict can arise ..

Here in USA most schools do not have uniforms requirements, most companies do not have dress code as such, and in recent years they have marked one day a week usually end of the week Friday as the day for informal dress when for example one can wear hijab, lungi, sari etc .. so it is a good way for some nice kind of accommodation from being overly strict..

I understand that abuses and political play is very much possible and that’s what is perhaps intended from some quarters, whether hidden or visible..

So, perhaps, one way to handle this may be for each school or college to find ways to accommodate exceptions individually with each student and parents requesting for it in writing day from headmaster or principal and if it is for guarding women’s modesty, and not for any other reasons, better to allow it .. no harm in that I think..
they are of course individually free to remove it or slide it when they wish .. any check ups due to security concerns can be handled by women personnel .. (in other words Indian culture can make its own rules about hijab and not follow others, just like anything else) ...

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in the old photo here, from 2009 June 13, we see our younger son Shilpi in the center and others around, it was at the graduation ceremony when our younger son Shilpi Halemane got his degree at Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ... Shilpi received his Bachelor degree BS in Mechanical Engineering there, he was in the five years Co-Op Engineering program which gave him three six month periods of internship working in affiliated companies, they were Philadelphia Streets Department, Anholt Technologies, and Green,Tweed & Co., first year summer job intern type experience was at Remington & Vernick Engineers In Haddonfield NJ, which he was able to get on his own .. he did very well, excellently, in all the jobs ..... he had switched on his own from four years program in Architecture with scholarship to five years program in Mechanical Engineering one year after joining Drexel as his interests had changed.. .. in his high school senior year Shilpi took a college level intro architecture course at Brookdale Community College and he had worked one summer at an architectural firm in Toms River NJ before he joined Drexel and did well in them ... he is multi talented as we know very well, and capable of doing fantastically in several fields.. he also worked, while in high school, one summer each at Boston Market in Howell NJ (his first regular type job, Shilpi and Kavi had both worked for two days or so at their uncle Raja maava’s IT company in Atlanta GA a few years earlier, in 1990s, we were all happy to get that opportunity from Raja Kailar) and next year at Sears in Freehold NJ ...

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