India’s New Laws Hurt Women Most of All – By Nilanjana Bhowmick
On the evening of Dec. 16, 2019, a group of conservative, middle-aged Muslim women in hijabs and burqas began a peaceful sit-in at Shaheen Bagh – a Muslim-majority, working-class neighborhood in South Delhi – blocking a major road that connects the Indian capital to its suburbs.…
Once stripped of their rights under these exercises, hundreds of thousands of women from across social classes, religions, and communities could be held in detention camps. And that worries Vijayan, who has worked with the U.N. war crimes tribunal for Yugoslavia and Rwanda as an attorney. Nowhere in the world, Vijayan said, are camps safe spaces for women.… “The constitution is in danger, and all of us – especially the women – are on thin ice. All our rights and freedoms are endangered. It’s a catastrophe. We are looking ahead at a gender crisis like no other,” Krishnan said.
And Indian women know that instinctively. Which is why the women of Shaheen Bagh have not budged from their sit-in after nearly two months. Inspired by them, hundreds of thousands of women have been occupying roads and streets all across the country. “Over the last two years, there has been a lot of fear among women,” Krishnan said. “But now there’s a remarkable possibility of us coming together and fighting this – and that’s what we are doing.”
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/04/india-citizenship-law-women/
SEE ALSO:
- Eyewitness Account: When a Langar Came From Shaheen Bagh to Gurudwara Bala Sahib – By Prabhjit Singh (Feb 5, 2020, The Wire)
https://thewire.in/rights/shaheen-bagh-punjab-langar - Shaheen Bagh Movement: Deepening Democracy-Uniting India – By Ram Puniyani (Feb 3, 2020, Countercurrents)
https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/shaheen-bagh-movement-deepening-democracy-uniting-india - At Shaheen Bagh, Muslim Women Take Their Place as Heroes of the Movement – By Rafia Kazim (Jan 30, 2020, The Wire)
https://thewire.in/women/shaheen-bagh-muslim-women - Time for a mid-term poll – in response to reverberations from Shaheen Bagh and other parts of India – By Sumanta Banerjee (Feb 3, 2020, Countercurrents)
https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/time-for-a-mid-term-poll-in-response-to-reverberations-from-shaheen-bagh-and-other-parts-of-india
