Mysore weddings back in spotlight

KOZHIKODE: The mysterious death of a woman, a native of Chulliod in Wayanad, along with two children in Gundelpett near Mysore on Thursday, has  again brought to light the plight of the victims of Mysore marriages.

It was in the late 1990s that the tales  of Muslim women married off to Mysore by poor parents were reported  from various border hamlets of the district.

Many of these women were tortured and abandoned. Those who   escaped the torture are leading a pathetic life back  home.

The woman, Mubahseera, 24, daughter of Mariyam and Muhammed Pulikkal  of Thovarimala, a far-flung village near Chulliode, was found hanging from the roof of her house in Gundelpett on Thursday. She had allegedly killed her two children Muhammed Shayal, 3,  and Denha Fathima, three months.

But her relatives suspect that it is  a murder.  The bodies of the victims were brought home after  post-mortem in Gundelpett on Thursday. The last rites of the trio were held at the burial ground of Juma Masjid, Chulliod in the evening.

Shaji Kottayil, a rights’ activist of the locality, told DC that the village of Thovarimala had  many such victims.

“Many of them were either abandoned by husbands or they escaped extreme torture,”  he said and  added  that the number of women married off to  Mysore from the area had dwindled due to the stiff protest from various forums.

“Though a few of them live happily, the majority had to end lives, flee for life or suffer  extreme torture,”  he added.