The following is the press statement issued by the All India Democratic Women’s Association on October 13. IT is now confirmed that the young woman from a village in Meerut who had earlier alleged that she was abducted, gang-raped and then forced to convert to Islam has now approached the Meerut police to seek protection from her own family. She has told the police that her earlier statements were completely false and that she had entered into a relationship with Kaleem of her own free will. Her family has since then become aware of the facts of the case and are now threatening her. The young woman has requested protection from the district authorities and has been sent to a Nari Niketan. An AIDWA delegation had visited the hospital in Ghaziabad where the young woman was admitted on August 9 and had met her family members. We had issued a statement then in which we said that while we fully sympathised with the young woman who was in great distress and in bad health, there were serious discrepancies in her story and, facts that had come to light about the reasons for her earlier hospitalisation, also conflicted with her statements. We had, however, said that her statement must be acted upon by the authorities until further enquiries were carried out. At the same time we condemned the way in which the BJP and its sister organisations were using the incident to inflame communal passions and using it as evidence of the ‘love jihad’ that they insisted was being carried out in UP and other parts of the country. Now that the young woman has come forward with a truthful account of what actually transpired AIDWA demands that: 1. The young woman be given full protection; 2. Her family members be instructed to refrain from any violence against her and, if they continue to threaten her, be proceeded against according to the law; 3. All those who were arrested because of her earlier statements be immediately released from jail and all cases against them be withdrawn; 4. Cases be registered against all those who indulged in activities and propaganda that led to communal tension in Meerut and adjacent districts. AIDWA expresses its grave concern at the fact that women face the greatest insecurity not only in public spaces but within their own homes. ‘Honour killings’ and the fear that they inspire are responsible for much violence and also for miscarriage of justice in many cases. We have demanded and drafted a law to deal with this atrocity. It needs to be enacted at the earliest.