Hafta letters: Moral policing and ‘love jihad’ laws

Hello Hafta team,

This was a really informative Hafta. And the guests were great, too. I totally agree with Manisha when she says “we are this society” regarding the “love jihad” laws. I am a Muslim and my parents are teachers so pretty educated, but the ideas of “individuality” and “freedom” don’t enter their heads: “reach whatever heights you want to but within the confines of our social construct.”

Except that “love jihad” laws are being used to target Muslims, most of our adult people love the idea of policing interfaith love stories, many of them might be happy that youngsters would be scared to pursue interfaith love because of the laws.

In a village close to my place some guys had formed a secret group. They would loudly say "Salaam" to burqa-clad girls. The catch was that if they replied, they’d say, “Why are you replying back to unknown guys?” And if a girl had a boyfriend, these guys would alert their parents, and this was totally legitimised. The only difference now is that police have the legal authority to do moral policing..

Keep up the great work,

Shehba Fathima