Selima’s mother Urfa Bibi at her home in Huskipara village. (Partha Biswas)

Rajnagar (Murshidabad), Sept. 17: A kangaroo court forced a married woman to do sit-ups holding her ears in front of clapping villagers after a maulana decreed that her divorce from her former husband had not happened according to Islamic laws.

Selima Bibi (name changed), 28, said she had a valid divorce certificate from a licensed Muslim-marriage registrar but the illegal shalishi court ignored it.

It also imposed a fine of Rs 8,000 on her current husband, Safikul Mondal, 30, and ordered the couple to leave their village of Rajnagar in Hariharpara, Murshidabad.

Selima said she had filed for divorce from Jabbar Sheikh last November and, after the notice period, got her divorce certificate from the registrar’s office at Raninagar on January 2. Jabbar got custody of the couple’s seven-year-old daughter and three-year-old son.

On April 14, Selima married Safikul, 30, at a Muslim-marriage registrar’s office in Hariharpara. They then went off to Bangalore for two months where Safikul got a job as a labourer.

Last Saturday, during the Id celebrations, some of the villagers refused to allow Safikul to offer namaaz on the ground that his marriage was not legitimate.

“I showed them the divorce certificate but they refused to listen. They called a kangaroo court on Sunday night. A maulana from neighbouring Chua village was invited to the meeting,” Safikul said.

“The maulana said our marriage was illegal because according to Islamic law, a wife cannot file for divorce without her husband’s permission. As soon as the maulana gave his verdict, those conducting the kangaroo court ordered my wife to do 10 sit-ups holding her ears. The assembled villagers clapped as she carried out the order.”

A Congress member of the local Biharia gram panchayat was present during the “hearing”. Emdadul Sheikh said: “I know that holding a shalishi is illegal, but what could I have done? I am an elected representative from the area and had to act as one of the judges. The people who had voted for me requested me to do so. I had to keep quiet.”

Selima, who is now staying with her parents in Huskipara village, 15km away, said: “I have never felt so humiliated in my life. I had to hold my ears and do sit-ups in front of nearly 1,000 villagers. I was too scared to protest. My husband had to borrow money at a high interest to pay the fine.”

Yesterday, she lodged an FIR against 11 villagers, including Emdadul and her former husband.

“Immediately after getting the complaint, we sent a force to the village to arrest the accused people. But they have all fled the village,” said Sunayan Basu, the officer in charge of Hariharpara police station.

Maulana Mansur Ali said: “I had been called to give my opinion on the divorce of Selima Bibi. I told the villagers that even though the divorce was in accordance with the law of the country, Islamic law had not been followed. If the divorce is not legitimate, the second marriage is also not legitimate according to Islam.”

Abdul Hai, a licensed Muslim-marriage registrar in Murshidabad’s Jalangi, said: “According to the law of the land, any one of the spouses can file for divorce. Then we send a notice through registered post to the other party seeking an acknowledgement and their objections, if any. After we get the acknowledgement, we wait for a month and if there is no objection, we issue the divorce certificate.”