Revathi Masoosai, a born Muslim but brought up as a Hindu, said she suffered mental torture during her six-month detention for trying to officially change her religion to Hindu.

Revathi, 29, who is a practising Hindu, said she was detained by religious authorities for 180 days after applying in an Islamic Syariah Court in Malacca to have her Muslim name and religion changed.

Although her parents are Muslims, Revathi was raised as a Hindu and married her Hindu husband in 2004, a marriage that was never registered as Muslims cannot marry non-Muslims under Malaysian law.

Revathi, released from a Islamic-run rehabilitation centre last Thurday, said she was forced to undertake extensive counselling and suffered mental torture during her ordeal.

"It was the toughest experience of my life. I was mentally tortured for six months by continuous counselling sessions," Revathi told AFP .

"I did not do anything wrong but they insisted on rehabilitating me to become a Muslim. But I am a Hindu and I choose to remain this way," she said.

Revathi's case has raised concern among rights groups about freedom of religious practice which is guaranteed in multicultural Malaysia's secular constitution, although the official religion is Islam.

The country's civil courts operate in parallel to syariah courts for Muslims in areas of family law including divorce, child custody and inheritance.

Put under parents' custody

The court released Revathi last week on condition that she be placed in the custody of her Muslim parents and undergo weekly religious counselling.

"She is a Muslim, so she has to live with her parents," said Tuah Atan, lawyer for the Islamic religious council of Malacca.

But Revathi, who has a 18-month-old daughter, vowed she would never embrace Islam despite her ordeal and concerns that she could again be incarcerated.

The Islamic authorities also seized her daughter from her husband and handed the child to Revathi's Muslim mother.

Revathi said that during her detention she was served beef - which Hindu's do not consume - and made to attend numerous religious activities.

She said religious officials at the centre were still confident she could be "rehabilitated" to embrace Islam.

"What are they talking about? They have separated me from my child and my beloved husband for six months. Even if I was given a million dollars, I will never follow them," she said.

Revathi, an ethnic Indian, who has since been reunited with her husband and daughter, said her mother was a Hindu and her father a Christian but both subsequently converted to Islam.

She was raised by her grandmother and married her husband, a bus driver, according to Hindu rites.

Landmark decision

In a recent landmark decision, the nation's top secular court rejected a woman's bid for legal recognition as a Christian after she renounced Islam.

Born a Muslim, Lina Joy, waged a decade-long battle to have the word "Islam" removed from her national identity card.

But the Federal Court threw out her case and said only the Syariah Court legally certify her conversion.

However, the Revathi case gives an indication on how the Syariah Court will decide should Lina decide to go to the Islamic court.