Divorce via WhatsApp: US-based husband 'abandons' Hyderabad woman

HYDERABAD: A woman from Hyderabad says she has been abandoned by her US-based husband, who allegedly took her passport, green card, and vital documents back to America and claimed to have divorced her via WhatsApp.Hana Ahmed Khan, 31, married Mohammad Zain Uddin, 36, a US citizen originally from Nimboliadda in Kachiguda, on 22 June 2022 at a mosque in Abids. She joined him in the United States in February 2024 after completing official formalities, receiving her green card and social security number.

But less than a year later, her marriage allegedly came to an abrupt end.On 7 February 2025, the couple flew to Hyderabad and checked into a city hotel.

A few days later, Hana said her husband asked her to visit her family. While she was away, he allegedly checked out of the hotel, returned to the US, and took her immigration papers, passport, and identification with him.“I was devastated. He didn’t just abandon me, he also shut every door for me to even fight my case legally in the US,” Hana told social workers.She said her husband sent her father a WhatsApp message claiming he had obtained a divorce decree from a US court.

“I don’t even know how or when I was divorced,” she reportedly told her family.Left stranded, Hana has appealed to India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the US consulate in Hyderabad for help to obtain a duplicate green card so she can return to America and pursue legal action.Social worker and MBT leader Amjed Ullah Khan has written to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, urging intervention. “At the very least, the US embassy in Delhi and the consulate in Hyderabad should hear her out and help her secure a duplicate green card so that she can travel back to fight her case,” he wrote.Hana has since obtained a fresh passport from the Hyderabad regional passport office after lodging a complaint that her husband had taken her original.Her brother, Mohammed Munawar, alleged the ordeal began long before the Hyderabad incident. “When my sister was in Chicago, he assaulted her. The matter even reached the notice of the Chicago police, who counselled them. Later, when she called the authorities again in June, they took her statement and recorded past incidents of assault,” he said.Munawar added that their father confronted Zain about abandoning Hana, only to be told bluntly that he had already divorced her. “It came as a shock to us. My father is heartbroken. We do not accept such sudden divorces in our family. My sister deserves justice,” he said.