Family in Kerala ostracised over wedding snaps, dance

MALAPPURAM: A family in Thrithala, Palakkad, has been allegedly ostracized by the local mahallu committee allegedly for allowing women of the family to pose for photographs during a wedding reception. The incident came to light after Danish Riyaz, whose family is facing a social boycott, posted a Facebook post about the incident.
According to Riyaz, the wedding reception of his brother Abdul Hai was held at an auditorium in Edappal town on December 28.After a few days, the mahallu committee boycotted the family citing four reasons: women posed for photographs at the function, organized a programme using musical instruments at the event, children of the family danced on the stage and women spoke over a microphone. After coming to know about the boycott family members apologized before the committee, but it refused to acknowledge and lift the ban, said Riyaz in his post. He also said that his family respects all beliefs and customs of the religion and always followed the decisions of the mahallu committee.
Riyaz sought the intervention of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, state human rights commission and local MLA V T Balram to resolve the issue amicably.
Riyaz said that the main argument of the committee members was that musical events and other programmes in which women were participating were against sharia. “It is very surprising that similar programmes are allowed in wedding functions in neighbouring areas which fall under the jurisdictions of other mahallu committees. But our committee is still not ready to change its traditional stand,” he said adding that he and his family would go to any extent to get justice. “No religious institution can impose such a ban on a family in a democratic country,” he added. Riyaz said he had faced a similar situation after his marriage, which was held two years ago and the family decided to change the venue to an auditorium which is around 13km away from their home, to avoid such situations this time.
Meanwhile, the secretary of the mahallu committee, Azees Aloor said there was no ban on the family, but only non-cooperation from the part of the committee. “We cannot agree with the violations of the instructions regarding the wedding functions given by the committee. The committee has its own stand as a religious institution and we cannot change it for a single person or a family,” he added.