The Kerala Story: Indian court refuses to ban film about thousands of women joining ISIS

Trailer for the release condemned by state politicians and journalists

Demonstrators burn an effigy of ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi during a protest in New Delhi in 2017. A new film says 32,000 women from Kerala were recruited to join the extremist group. AFP

India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected petitions filed by a Muslim body challenging the release of a controversial film that claims thousands of women from Kerala joined ISIS.

The Kerala Story, directed by Sudipto Sen, says 32,000 women from the coastal state were converted to Islam and recruited by the militant group.

The film is scheduled to be released on Friday.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, a leading body of Islamic scholars, challenged the film’s release in India's top court and sought the addition of a disclaimer that the film is a work of fiction.

“They are vilifying the community and marketing it as the truth. They do not have a disclaimer also that this is a work of fiction and they say as if it is the truth,” said the body's lawyer Vrinda Grover.

But the bench of Chief Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud said the petition could move to Kerala High Court, where a similar case demanding a ban on the film is already pending.

The Indian constitution allows citizens to approach the top court when they feel their rights have been “unduly deprived”.

“Hence, we are not inclined to entertain the petition on that ground, but, leave it open to the petitioner to move to the appropriate High Court,” the Supreme Court said.

It said the High Court “may consider the request for early listing” because of the impending release date.

The film's teaser, released in November, was condemned by state politicians and journalists.

Shashi Tharoor, a parliamentarian from the state, said on Monday that the filmmakers were misrepresenting the state.

“I am not calling for a ban on the film,” Mr Tharoor said.

“Freedom of expression does not cease to be valuable just because it can be misused.

“But Keralites have every right to say loud and clear that this is a misrepresentation of our reality.”

The Muslim Youth League, the youth wing of state’s Indian Union Muslim League party, announced a reward of 10 million rupees ($122,250) if the claims can be proven.

State Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan alleged that the film was an attempt by right-wing groups such as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to create communal tensions in the largely secular communist state.

In the trailer, lead actress Adah Sharma, who plays a Malayali woman, says she wanted to become a nurse but was converted to Islam and recruited by ISIS.

She then talks about “32,000 girls like her who have been converted and buried in the deserts of Syria and Yemen”.

“A dangerous game is being played to convert normal girls into dreaded terrorists in Kerala and that too in the open,” Ms Sharma’s character says.

But amid widespread criticism, the filmmakers have changed the caption of the film on YouTube to say it is a “compilation of true stories of three young women” from the state.

“Thousands of innocent women have been systematically converted, radicalised and their lives destroyed,” the description reads.

In India, which has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, cases of radicalisation are rare.

Security agencies in the country estimate that 100 people from Kerala either joined or tried to join ISIS.

In 2016, security forces found that two dozen people, mostly qualified young men and women, left the country in batches to join an affiliate of ISIS.

The group had reportedly converted three women and two men to their understanding of Islam, arranged for their weddings and their travel to Afghanistan.

One of the women was a student who had converted to Islam before getting married. She was eight months pregnant when she left the country.