It has been nearly five months since the music composer Wajid Khan breathed his last due to a cardiac arrest. His family members and friends are still struggling to come in terms with his unfortunate death. Amid this, his wife Kamalrukh Khan has opened up for the first time about her ordeal of marrying the late music composer. She talked about the suffering that she is facing in an inter-caste marriage. In her recent social media post, the Wajid’s wife has poured out her heart about being harassed to convert to Islam.
While divulging the details into her married life, she wrote, “I am Parsi and he was Muslim. We were what you would call “college sweethearts”. Eventually, when we did get married, we married for love under the Special Marriages Act (an act that upholds the right to practice one’s own religion post marriage). I want to share my ordeal and my experience in an inter-caste marriage – that in this day and age, a woman can face such prejudice, suffering and discrimination in the name of religion is a complete shame…and an eye-opener.”
She further said, “My simple Parsi upbringing was very democratic in its value system. However, post marriage, this same independence, education and democratic value system was the biggest problem for my husband’s family. An educated, thinking, independent woman with an opinion was just not acceptable. And resisting the pressures of conversion was sacrilege.”
Wajid’s wife also said that Khan’s family has used “scare tactics to make her convert included taking her to court seeking divorce”, adding that she was devastated, and felt betrayed. She also revealed that her in-laws have been harassing her to convert to Islam, adding that she will keep on fighting for her rights and for the inheritance of her kids. She said in the post, “The harassment from his family continues. I stand fighting for the rights and inheritance of my children which have been usurped by them. All this because of their hatred against me for not converting to Islam. Such deep-rooted hatred that even the death of a loved one could not move.”
Check out her post below:
Kamalrukh also pointed out that the “anti-conversion law should be nationalized in order to reduce the struggle for women like her who are fighting the toxicity of religion in inter-caste marriages.” She added that the religion should be a cause for celebration of differences not separation of families. “All religions are the path to the divine. Live and let live should be the only religion we all practice,” she said while summing up the post.”
