India: Muslims Flog Muslim Woman in Front of Mosque

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A disturbing case of mob violence has been reported from the state of Karnataka, India, and has left people shocked, especially because the last thing one expected from a rather educated and cosmopolitan state was the spectacle of a woman being punished in true Sharia style in broad daylight. A video that surfaced on social media a few days ago and has since gone viral shows a Muslim woman in what appears to be a hijab being brutally beaten with sticks, clubs, and plastic pipes outside a mosque in Karnataka. The attack, carried out by a group of Muslim men following the orders of a local mosque committee, has drawn disturbing comparisons to Taliban-style extrajudicial punishments.

The video footage of the assault that took place in the Davanagere area depicts the woman held down and crying in pain as several men repeatedly strike her, and a sizable crowd watches. Some assailants, who failed to find a stick, hit her with their hands. Some even tried to throw stones at her. The woman sustained multiple injuries in this attack.

The woman, identified as Shabeena Bano, was summoned to the mosque after her husband filed a complaint against her, accusing her of inappropriate behavior after a trivial domestic dispute. Following the husband’s complaint, Shabeena and her relatives were summoned to the mosque. At the mosque, six men identified as Mohammad Niyaz (32), a driver; Mohammad Gauspeer (45), a scrap dealer; Chand Basha (35), a sugarcane juice vendor; Dastagir (24), a bike mechanic; Rasool T R (42), a fisherman at Bukkambudi Lake; and Inayat Ullah (51), were delegated the task of beating the 38-year-old.

The victim later filed an First Information Report (FIR) with the local police. In her complaint, she alleged that apart from physically assaulting her, the accused individuals had also used profanity against her, and threatened her and her family with dire consequences. They also slapped, kicked, and assaulted her children.

In February 2022, the state of Karnataka made headlines after a group of Muslim female students refused to remove their hijab while entering classes, and were denied entry because wearing the hijab was a violation of the college’s uniform policy, which was also followed by the students of all religions. However, these students decided that they were entitled to special treatment because they were Muslim women, and Islam treated their women with a heightened degree of respect and modesty. The situation spiraled into massive chaos across the state and spread across other parts of the country, with Muslim mobs attacking people and properties. An image of young hijab-clad women barging into an institution shouting “Allahu akbar” became an iconic symbol for Muslim women on the subcontinent, “fighting the secular system” to stay true to their religion.

It took just three years for the Muslims in Karnataka to show these Islam enthusiasts what “being a woman in Islam” can translate to if the secular system collapses.

Though India is a secular democracy governed by a constitutional legal system, recent years have seen an uptick in cases in which Sharia law or other aspects of Islam have been invoked against women, resulting in extrajudicial actions that defy both Indian law and international human rights standards.

In one such case from Jharkhand in 2024, a Muslim group named “Adam Sena” reportedly threatened Muslim women with rape and murder for interacting with non-Muslim men. The group enforced a strict dress code and prohibited social behavior they deemed inappropriate, claiming to uphold Sharia law in the area. Victims were warned against approaching police, being told that “only Sharia applies here.”

In Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad, a Muslim woman named Arshi Fatima was given the triple talaq (immediate divorce by stating “I divorce you” three times) by her husband. She was then pressured to perform nikah halala (that is, being married to another man and having sex with him, so as to be permitted to return to her first husband, as per Qur’an 2:230) with her father-in-law in February 2023. She reported threats and physical assault during the ordeal, despite the fact that India criminalized the triple talaq in 2019.

In February 2022, another Muslim woman challenged a triple talaq order issued by a Sharia court in Raipur.

Again, in 2020, Muslims in a  Murshidabad village issued a fatwa imposing a ban on a series of activities, which include watching television, playing carrom (an Indian board game), purchasing lottery tickets, and listening to music using cellphones and computers. The fatwa, issued under the banner of a social reform committee, also prescribed a monetary penalty ranging from Rs 500 ($5.85) to Rs 7,000 ($82) and required sit-ups by holding one’s ears if anyone was found violating the dictate.

In 2018, Zafaryab Jilani, Secretary of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), announced that approximately 40 Darul Qaza — Islamic arbitration centers — were operating in the state of Uttar Pradesh. He also revealed the Board’s ambition to expand this network by establishing at least one such center in every district nationwide. These centers are designed to resolve matters involving Muslims according to Sharia law, serving as an informal alternative to India’s formal judicial system.

However, the Supreme Court of India has maintained that these bodies have no legal standing, and that their rulings are not legally binding. Despite this, concerns persist that Sharia-minded elements could use such platforms to impose Islamic law in ways that undermine India’s secular legal framework. The growing influence of these informal Sharia forums poses a serious challenge to the rule of law and the authority of the constitutional judiciary.