The wife of late music composer and singer Wajid Khan, Kamalrukh, has accused her in-laws of forcefully converting her into Islam. Kamalrukh, a Parsi by birth, has come out with serious allegations.
In a lengthy post on the social media platform, Kamalrukh spoke about the harassment she has been facing from her in-laws. It has only been five months since her husband Wajid Khan passed away. While she is yet to come to terms with it, she has opened up about her struggle of an inter-caste marriage. She wrote,
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“The topic of conversion arises. Once again. This time with full gusto on a government level. My name is Kamalrukh Khan, wife of the late music director Wajid Khan. My husband and I had a courtship spanning over 10 years before we finally got married. I am Parsi and he was Muslim. We were what you would call college sweethearts.”
‘Devastated And Betrayed’
Further, she said,
“My simply Parsi upbringing was very democratic in its value system. Independence of thought was encouraged and healthy debates were the norm. Education on all levels was encouraged. 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 opinions was just not acceptable. And resisting the pressures of conversion was sacrilege. My dignity and self-respect did not permit me to bend backward for him and his family, by converting to Islam. The conversion was not a value system I believed in personally. It was also not the example of a deep set rotten patriarchy that I wanted to set for my beautifully evolved children. Being an outcast from my husband’s family, scare tactics to make me convert included taking me to court seeking a divorce. I was devastated, felt betrayed, and was emotionally drained, but my children and I held on.”
She also batted for the anti-conversion law to be nationalized which she believes would help many women like her.
