by EMILY WAX
MUVATTUPUZHA, INDIA – Wearing jeans and leaving her auburn hair uncovered never created problems for Rayana Khasi, a 22-year-old Muslim engineering student in the coastal state of Kerala.
But then came the threats. About two months ago, members of the Popular Front of India, a fast-growing Muslim political and social organization in Kerala, allegedly started sending text messages to her saying, “You’re committing blasphemy.”
They admonished her publicly in her home town of Kasaragod, confronted her family and pelted her car with stones, she said.
“Many women here are now listening to them and covering. But this is India, not Afghanistan,” said Khasi, who has moved to a different city and changed her cellphone number several times as Indian authorities investigate her charges.
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