LUCKNOW, Oct 19: An Indian court on Thursday jailed a Muslim man for 10 years for the rape of his daughter-in-law, an attack which sparked an uproar after an Islamic council ordered the two to live as man and wife.
Ali Mohammad was arrested in June 2005 after Imrana Bibi, the 28-year-old wife of his rickshawpuller son and mother of their five young children, told police she had been raped in Khurba village in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
A Muslim tribunal then decreed Imrana must live as the wife of the man who had raped her and treat her husband as her “son”, outraging feminists and liberal Muslims.
The tribunal’s opinion was rejected by Shahista Amber, president of the Muslim Women Personal Law Board.
“Those who rape do an unIslamic act ... The father-in-law is a rapist. Imrana cannot be his wife. It would be a haram (forbidden) relationship,” she told a TV network.—Reuters
