MUMBAI: When Mehak’s parents found out she was having a relationship with a Muslim man, they locked her in her bedroom, seized her phone and bank cards and installed security cameras at their home in northern India.
To the 26-year-old’s astonishment, when she managed to report her confinement to local police, they took her parents’ side and urged her to end the relationship.
Mehak is from Uttar Pradesh state, which recently criminalised forced religious conversion, including by way of interfaith marriages — legislation critics fear could be used to control women and stop them freely choosing who to marry.
“I knew what I was doing wasn’t illegal. It was my choice. I am educated, I have a mind of my…
