• 16 Feb 2016
• Hindustan Times (Mumbai)
• HT Correspondent letters@hindustantimes.com
The college authorities told me that I can’t attend classes since I married a person without the consent of my parents. They told me if I continued my education, it would set a bad precedent for other girls. NEERAJA, the student allegedly barred from college
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A college student in north Kerala’s Kozhikode is planning to move the state women commission to complain against her college authorities, who allegedly didn’t allow her to attend classes for marrying a man from another religious community.
A first-year degree student at the Muslim Education Society women’s college, Neeraja was in love with 23-year-old Mohamed Rameeze and they had a court marriage under the special marriages act on February 1.
But when she went back to college after a week, she said, she was allegedly told she couldn’t continue her studies.
“The college authorities told me that I can’t attend classes since I married a person without the consent of my parents. They told me if I continued my education, it would set a bad precedent for other girls,” she said.
When she insisted on attending her classes, college authorities said they could consider her case if she converted to Islam. But the couple took a vow to not change their religious identities after marriage.