Satellite news station Al Jazeera has highlighted the plight of a Malaysian woman who has been forcibly separated from her Hindu husband and 15-month-old baby girl on the grounds of her religion.

Islamic authorities and the woman's parents claim that she is a Muslim named Siti Fatimah.

Her husband Suresh Veerapan said she is not a practising Muslim, but a Hindu born to Muslim parents and that her name is Revathi Masoosai.

The TV channel showed rare footage of Revathi, or Siti Fatimah, in an Islamic rehabilitation camp in Ulu Yam, Selangor. The couple is from Malacca.

Last Wednesday, the Syariah Court extended her detention by 80 days. She has already been detained for 100 days after being charged with apostasy or deserting her religion.

Suresh has also complained that Islamic officials are prohibiting him from visiting his wife. Their daughter is in his mother-in-law's care.

The 10-minute programme - Everywoman presented by Shiulie Ghosh (photo) - interviewed Suresh and his mother-in-law about the matter.

Film crew threatened

The programme-makers also followed Suresh on a three-hour road trip to the rehabilitation camp. They captured emotional moments when the couple met on either side of the locked gate at the entrance.

The conversation of a few minutes between the couple - in Tamil - was closely monitored by a religious official.

The footage also showed a camp official threatening the programme maker to stop filming, saying that he would call the police if the crew continued shooting.

The footage showed Suresh comforting his wife and telling her to be brave and strong: "I am making every effort to get you out of here. We will be together again."

Earlier in the programme, his mother-in-law said she would bring up her granddaughter as a Muslim and that she wanted her daughter to continue in her faith.

In an interview at the end of the programme, Zainah Anwar of Sisters in Islam and Farid Suffian Shuaib, a law lecturer at International Islamic University, briefly debated the issue of religious freedom in Malaysia.

Everywoman is a weekly studio-based magazine show for women, offering a mix of hard news and soft features. The programme will be repeated 1.30pm tomorrow, 3.30pm on Wednesday and 2.30pm on Thursday. Al Jazeera is shown on Channel 20 over Astro.

Malaysiakini.tv will upload the full 10-minute clip next week. For today, this is a 60-second teaser.

Watch the one-minute video here.