'Muslim by choice, want to live with husband': Hadiya to SC
New Delhi: Kerala's Hadiya has told the Supreme Court today that she is a Muslim and wants to live as one. She has requested judges in an affidavit that she be allowed to live with her husband Shafin Jehan, who she married after she converted to Islam.
"I embraced Islam on my choice as per my conscience and on my own free will, after studying about Islam and thereafter I married Shafin Jahan. I further pray that this court may be kind enough to appoint my husband as my guardian," said Hadiya, adding that she "continues to live in confinement."
Hadiya, a 24-year-old homeopathy student, was born Hindu and was called Akhila Ashokan before she converted to Islam and changed her name. Her case has been labelled as "love jihad" by her parents and others; it is a term used by right wing groups to accuse Muslim men of marrying Hindu women, converting them and recruiting them for terrorism.
Hadiya's marriage to Shafin Jahan was annulled by the Kerala High Court last year after her parents alleged that she had been brainwashed and forced to convert to Islam in a plan by terror group ISIS to indoctrinate and take her to Syria.
Shafin Jahan had appealed in the Supreme Court against the high court order cancelling their marriage. The top court had directed the NIA to investigate whether there are any terror links to the case.
In her affidavit today, Hadiya has said that she has been "under confinement without the freedom that I am entitled to. Even now I am under police surveillance. I most humbly pray that my entire liberty may kindly be restored to me."
A marriage has to be separated from any criminal action, aspect or conspiracy, "otherwise we will be creating bad precedent", a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had said.
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Iran Foreign Minister Araghchi begins 3-day India visit
New Delhi (PTI): Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi began a three-day official visit to India on Wednesday, marking the first high-level diplomatic engagement from Tehran since the outbreak of the US-Israel war with Iran more than two months ago.
Araghchi is visiting India primarily to attend a two-day meeting of BRICS foreign ministers beginning Thursday.
The Iranian foreign minister is set to hold wide-ranging bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar, focusing on the escalating crisis in West Asia.
The situation surrounding the Strait of Hormuz is expected to feature prominently. The Indian side is likely to press for the safe passage of remaining merchant vessels through the strategic waterway, according to people familiar with the matter.
Araghchi and other foreign ministers of the BRICS member states are scheduled to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.
"A very warm welcome to Foreign Minister of Iran, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, on his arrival in New Delhi for the BRICS Foreign Ministers' Meeting," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on 'X'.
The escalating crisis in West Asia and its impact on the global energy supply chain are expected to dominate deliberations at the BRICS foreign ministers' meeting.
India, as the chair of BRICS, is hosting the conclave of the foreign ministers ahead of the annual summit of the grouping in September.
It will be interesting to see if the foreign ministerial conclave manages to produce a consensus statement on the conflict in West Asia.
Sharp differences among the member states over the US-Israel war on Iran stalled India's efforts to build a consensus position on the conflict during a meeting of the grouping's deputy foreign ministers and special envoys on Middle East and North America last month.
No consensus statement on the conflict could be reached largely due to differences between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran. The two neighbouring countries have sparred in recent weeks over Iran's alleged attacks on energy infrastructure in the UAE.
"The active presence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in mechanisms such as BRICS represents a strategic choice to strengthen genuine multilateralism, expand equitable cooperation, and participate in shaping a more just order in international relations," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on 'X'.
"The BRICS foreign ministers' meeting in New Delhi can be an important opportunity for dialogue on the future of Global South cooperation, reforming international economic governance, developing independent trade, strengthening financial and banking ties, and reducing countries' dependence on discriminatory and unilateral mechanisms," he said.
Gharibabadi said Iran, with its geopolitical, energy, transit, scientific, and human capacities, can play an effective role in the BRICS agenda for balanced development, economic security, regional connectivity, and amplifying the voice of independent countries.
The Iranian deputy foreign minister is in New Delhi for the BRICS meeting.
"In this path, opposition to America's unilateral coercive measures and their illegal and anti-development effects is an inseparable part of defending economic justice and the rights of nations to development," he said.
After the West Asia conflict escalated, Iran urged India, as the current BRICS chair, to leverage its "independent role" to halt the US-Israel hostilities against Iran.
Global oil and gas prices have surged after Iran virtually blocked the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping lane between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman that handles roughly 20 per cent of global oil and LNG (liquefied natural gas).
BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the UAE, with Indonesia joining in 2025.
It has emerged as an influential grouping as it brings together 11 major emerging economies of the world, representing around 49.5 per cent of the global population, around 40 per cent of the global GDP and around 26 per cent of the global trade.
The BRICS foreign ministers held their last meeting on the margins of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 80) in September 2025.
