ON April 30, 2023, Nazeer Hussain, a Malayali software engineer residing in the US, posted an offer on Facebook that quickly went viral. He pledged Rs 10 lakh to anyone who could provide the names and addresses of women who purportedly converted to Islam and joined the Islamic State (IS), as depicted in the teaser of the film The Kerala Story. This post triggered a controversy soon after the trailer of the film was released.
The trailer claimed that 32,000 women from Kerala had undergone conversion and joined the IS. Hussain's offer was open-ended; individuals did not need to provide details of all 32,000 women to qualify for the prize money. Even those who could furnish details of 10 women were eligible. He also made it clear that only three Malayali women-whose names and details are publicly known-had converted to Islam and joined IS: Merin Jacob alias Mariam and Nimisha alias Fatima who are married to brothers Bestin Vincent and Bexon Vincent, natives of Palakkad. The third woman is Sonia Sebastian married to Abdul Rashid Abdulla, both natives of Kasaragod. Hussain urged people to refrain from baseless accusations against a particular community, particularly in the context of the love jihad, and the Kerala and Karnataka police in their investigations.
Hussain’s post marked the beginning of a series of “lucky draws” aimed at those supporting the claim that 32,000 Malayali women had joined the IS. One of them, C Shukkur, a lawyer-turned-film actor, offered Rs 11 lakh to individuals who could provide the name and other details of just 32 women who converted to Islam and joined the IS. Subsequently, The Youth League, the youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), declared a reward of Rs 1 crore to anyone who could substantiate the allegations raised in the film.
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