A pregnant 27-year-old Muslim woman claimed that a gynecologist in Maheshtala, Kolkata, refused to treat her because of her religious identity. According to reports, the doctor claimed She would not treat “Mohammedans” patients and refused to treat the woman in the light of the Pahalgam terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir26 people (most Hindu) were killed. She is said to have known the patient under her first name for 7 months and began to refuse treatment after she had experienced her last name. The doctor supposedly said that people of the The religion of women killed people in their religion.
The patient’s husband Submitted a complaint about the incident on April 24thon the Maheshtala police station and in the West Bengal Medical Council. The doctor has refused such allegations and claims that they are trying to defamed them and submit a case at the police station in Parnasee. According to reports, she says that most of her patients are Muslim and that she never made such a comment.
On April 22, 2025, four militant tourists attacked Baisaran Valley, Pahangam, which led to 26 civilian deaths. The group was a mixture of Indian citizens, a Nepalese tourist and a Kashmirical resident. The attackers supposedly separated the victims based on religion before they carried out them and when some victims of their motives were questioned: “Go out of modes.” The militants are suspected by several government agencies to be terrorists from Pakistan, but still have to be identified on the basis of ongoing studies.
Stereotypes against Muslims: Internal essentialization of separate conflicts
This is not the first instance of a municipal story that influences the actions of individuals and interest groups at a larger level. The The US State Department report on international religious freedom Contains how existing legal framework conditions and political rhetoric serve elements about social attitudes and collective perception of Muslims. They claim that this is evident from attacks on the adoration locations, disorder of religious meetings, physical attacks and hate speeches in Hindu nationalist gatherings that demand violence or marginalization of the Muslim community.
Source: Reuters
You will find support in your assertion that the perpetrators of such measures have been selectively examined and arrested in order to prescribe them against the Muslim minorities. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs rejected the report and explained that it was based on misinformation and biased sources.
The proper refusal of the doctor to treat a Muslim patient illustrates how individuals can internalize national tragedies, which leads to prejudices against entire communities. Although no party has proven in the incident that participation in participating in the Pahalgam attack is displayed directly, this influence direct stereotypes and prejudices that influence the alleged discrimination behavior.
The widespread attention of the media and the municipal propaganda have several believe that the militants in the Pahangam attack are Muslims, in particular because of their alleged separation of Hindus and Muslims among civilian victims. If you combine the view of this attack with the presumed behavior of the doctor, it is remarkable that there is a significant concept of identification when rejecting the service. It shows how the actions of individuals that spread out as those of Pakistan (and a Hinduem Muslim conflict) think about the minority population of Muslims who live in India.
The widespread attention of the media and the municipal propaganda have several believe that the militants in the Pahangam attack are Muslims, in particular because of their alleged separation of Hindus and Muslims among civilian victims.
The alleged actions of the doctor show how conflict -based sensationalization of messages, how the presentation of a collision between Hindus and Muslims can maintain stereotypes and induce stigma against Muslims as minorities.
Religious feelings and medical ethics
If the allegations against the doctor have proven to be true, this means dangerous ethical principles for the medical community. It is a common social perception that doctors as specialists see no caste, creed or gender in their patients. This means that the medical ethics mandate should try a doctor to offer his patient the best service without prejudice. The accusations involved in this incident show a conflict between the identity of the doctor and its medical duty. It shows how strongly the essentials of individual incidents as municipal propaganda can contribute to existing stereotypes via a community in the head.
Source: VOA News
These stereotypes are thus issued in the form of discriminatory behavior, which could affect humanitarian service in this case. What several people (both readers and practitioners of such discrimination) seem to forget is that this is a question of humanity and not religion.
Alleged discriminatory behavior such as the above also show a much harder truth about stereotypes and ethics. It shows how such conflicts between work and identity can dehuman those who are stigmatized. What the identity for a person stands for is more than your need for humanitarian service.
The intersectional nature of discrimination against a Muslim woman
This incident also emphasizes the need to view things with an intersectional feminist lens. We tend to view intersectionality as something that has to be prioritized while we talk about changes in development. However, we rarely recognize that it is also necessary to see discrimination similarly. In this case, the type of alleged discrimination itself was intersectional. A case in which the municipal belief system and the feeling of patriarchal ideas overlap.
Feminist struggles have achieved several achievements of women so far, such as education, political and social rights. One for several fights is the improvement and additional advantages for women in the maternity health service. It was fought by activists and doctors because it was a basic food. A person who denies it to deny discriminatory reasons is further back.
The alleged behavior shows how far feminist solidarity has been achieved, only insofar as the identities are similar to municipal, caster -based and class -based identity.
The alleged behavior shows how far feminist solidarity has been achieved, only insofar as the identities are similar to municipal, caster -based and class -based identity. The identity of the pregnant woman as Muslim and woman reveals how municipalism and patriarchy can reduce discrimination. The feminist success is not only who becomes a doctor, but how care is expanded through these differences. The fact that a doctor practices medicine in a scientific and humanitarian area is two steps for feminism. However, the shielding of such a service due to individual prejudices and the distancing of the marginalized is still a step back for feminism.
Source: Asia Society
This reflects how deeply common tensions can infiltrate even the most important and ethical rooms such as healthcare. It is seen that a terrorist attack merges into the life of those who are far away from violence and that ordinary citizens transform into representatives of a religion observed with suspicion. Medical ethics is based on impartiality and treats everyone with dignity and care, regardless of their identity and associations.
The woman was not only discriminated against because of her religion, but also in a domain that was historically shaped by patriarchal control. Participation by a medical doctor in the medical field is a feminist service. But to use this role to refuse to refuse to feminist solidarity to another marginalized woman. Ultimately, this incident calls for further and deeper social considerations about how fear and prejudices are not allowed to affect fundamental rights and ethical duties.
Lakshmi Yazhini is a post -Doctor student who pursues an integrated Masters in development studies at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Yazhini in Chennai has an enthusiastic research interest in the intersectionality of feminist geography and the state in peripheral cities. In her free time, she likes to bake, make yoga, read fiction and send her thoughts in her diary (which is most common about the micro unchanges around her). Yazhini hopes to explore, write and make a difference to a political decision -maker.
