Watch: Mrs. India Galaxy 2024 Rinima Borah Opens Up About ‘Love Jihad’ Abuse, Forced Beef Eating By Ex-Boyfriend

Newly crowned ‘Mrs. India Galaxy 2024,’ Rinima Borah, made sensational claims about her traumatic past narrating that her former Muslim boyfriend forced her to consume beef and compelled her to practice Namaz. On November 8, she was talking on a podcast with Assamese YouTuber Aboyob Bhuyan when she told the audience about the torture she had suffered, which she said left deep scars.

Being candid about her experience, the beauty queen recalled how she was emotionally and physically abused for years since the age of 16. She had moved from Assam to Bangalore to pursue studies when she entered into the first relationship of her life with a Muslim man under whose disguise of concern she stated being mistreated.

She said she was abused and traumatized for the past 16 years. It would take years for that to leave my brain. Everyday I tell myself those days are over now, she shared in the podcast. Despite this painful past, Borah continued to grapple with the shame and victim-blaming she still faces. “Till date, some people tell me it was all my fault, and I still fight for that today,” she added.

Borah elaborated further on the shockingness of her relationship. She said her ex-boyfriend and his family allegedly made her take on a Muslim name, “Ayesha Hussain,” and forced her to eat beef-a totally conflicting issue with her being a Hindu. “They made me eat beef. I remember the day they made me forcibly have it,” she recalled. She also complained she was compelled to offer Namaz. “They even made me offer Naamaz,” she added.

Watch the video here:

A ‘Love Jihad’ Allegation?

How grave her situation was became apparent when Borah narrated the threats she had received from her ex-boyfriend. “He must be listening to this podcast. He threatened to throw acid on me if I left him,” she divulged. This cold-blooded narration prompted Borah to term her experience almost like a case of love jihad, where in the name of love, coercion and forced religious conversion is sought often with ulterior motives.

But despite the seriousness of her claims, Borah wanted to disassociate herself from the ongoing national debate on “love jihad,” a term that is considered controversial and has brought together the bogey of Muslim men forcing non-Muslim women into conversions under relationships.

In a bizarre statement, Borah lessened her own case, which was self-evident to be a hallmark of “love jihad” and uttered a contradiction instead.

Rinima Borah Gaslights Other Victims

She attempted to maintain a distance from the “love jihad” controversy, going onto Instagram and YouTube-after the podcast had exploded across all those platforms-but on social media, she described her personal experience with forced conversion and religious coercion. She strongly condemned the term “love jihad,” stating, “I don’t believe in or support the concept of ‘love jihad’—an ideology that I feel goes against our fundamental rights to choose our relationships based on love, respect, and understanding.”

Borah also emphasized that her experience was not a reflection of an entire religion but rather a personal incident involving one individual. She urged her audience to focus on domestic violence instead of reducing the conversation to religious differences. “In the full podcast, I shared a personal experience involving one individual, not an entire religion. It’s important to me that this conversation stays focused on the real issue—domestic violence—not on religious differences,” Borah added.

However, despite the controversy surrounding her remarks, Borah insisted that her experience was not intended to generalize or attack any faith. “I encourage everybody to listen to the whole podcast for a complete understanding and to avoid reducing this to a religious matter that I do not endorse,” she insisted.

The Reality Of ‘Love Jihad’

While the personal account by Borah is shocking, it is not a unique incident by any means. “Love jihad” is the term given to the alleged practice by which Muslim men lure non-Muslim women into relationships with the intent of conversion. While much space has been devoted in argument over whether the term should be accepted, myriad reports point to cases in which women were forced to change their religious identities.

According to reports, there were 153 documented love jihad cases in 2023 itself, similar to a number recorded the previous year.

MUST READ | Harry Styles And Zayn Malik Take Over Lookalike Contests After Timothée Chalamet’s Event Goes Viral