By Sameera Sheikh – Futuristic Media Network
As if the controversy surrounding Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik weren’t enough, some new, very damaging facts have begun to emerge. According a report by Futuristic Media Network – India’s largest content syndication network of freelance writers, journalists and contributors – it is possible that the couple got secretly married last year or in the beginning of this year (2010) in Dubai.
Says Flynn Remedios, editor-in-chief of Futuristic Media Network, “We have enough inputs from various sources to prove that the some sort of marriage did take place earlier between Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik. One of our senior citizen journalists from Hyderabad has sent us a news report which claims that Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik secretly tied the knot in Dubai sometime last year. While the exact date, time and venue of the secret wedding ceremony is not known, several independent sources close to Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik, their families, relatives and even professional colleagues and team mates have verified on condition of anonymity that the couple indeed did get married and have been living together occasionally as husband and wife. The public wedding scheduled for April 15 is merely to give their already existent live-in relationship social sanction through the act of marriage. We have recorded statements and audio recordings of interviews conducted by our network of freelance reporters in Hyderabad, Dubai and Pakistan and are verifying the interviews before we release the transcripts to the media in general.”
Flynn Remedios has also claimed that according to inputs from his reporters, Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik have been living together whenever they have travelled to the Middle East or other parts of the World. “The very fact that Sania Mirza’s family and relatives were comfortable with the duo staying together at her home in Hyderabad, when her house was under seige by the media 24×7 shows that her family knew about the secret pact. Unfortunately for them, the ghost of Shoaib’s past with Ayesha made things messy.”
There have been several media reports about the so-called marriage. We now know for certain that Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik have been fooling the press and media and the Indian people at large all along. They had cemented their relationship even before the ghost of Shoaib’s earlier “marriage” with Ayesha Siddique began singing. What was remaining was just the reception, asserted Remedios, claiming that several important people in Hyderabad, Dubai, Pakistan and the rest of India, including politicians are in the know of this fact.
The expose` assumes importance in the light of a fatwa issued by some religious scholars. The elders issued a fatwa or religious edict against their living and mingling freely even before the marriage is solemnised. The Sunni Ulema Board, a group of religious scholars, said both the sportspersons were bringing disrepute to Islam and Muslim community through their actions. The board issued a ‘fatwa’ terming their actions haram (forbidden) and asked Muslims to stay away from the April 15 marriage. “The kind of actions the two are indulging in like living together and addressing the media together are haram in Islam,” said Moulana Haseebul Hasan Siddiqui, a religious scholar.
Shoaib has been staying at Sania’s residence in Hyderabad for more than a week and television pictures showed them dancing and doing physical exercises together.
Meanwhile in an open letter and an online petition to Sania Mirza published on http://ghotala.wordpress.com and released to the media last Monday morning, Mumbai-based actresses Neelakshi Singh, Anaya Das and about 100-odd youth have urged Sania Mirza not to marry Shoaib Malik for blatantly lying to the media and the Indian people. The online petition and campaign on http://ghotala.wordpress.com, Facebook and the internet has garnered over 10,000 signatures in one week with about 70 per cent of the signatories claiming that they would not like Sania Mirza to represent India any more. According to Neelakshi Singh, architect of the online petition, “Sania Mirza supported Shoaib Malik knowing very well that he was lying earlier. Instead, she should have refused to comment unless the allegations were cleared.”