‘They tried to stifle the voices of our children’: Meet the women protesters who have been occupying a New Delhi street for a month – By Swati Gupta, Manveena Suri and Julia Hollingsworth
Only a month ago, 50-year-old mother Bahro Nisa was a regular New Delhi shopkeeper, making a living selling cold drinks to tourists visiting one of Asia’s biggest mosques. She had never protested a day in her life – but on December 15, that all changed. She saw images on television of police appearing to assault students protesting at the prestigious Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI) in the Indian capital against a controversial law that fast-tracks citizenship for non-Muslim minorities from select countries.
That night, Nisa and others headed to the residential Muslim area of Shaheen Bagh to express their solidarity with the students – and oppose the controversial law that was passed on December 11 and came into effect last week. She has come every day since – and even quit her job so she could stay full time.
“They tried to stifle the voices of our children,” she told CNN at Shaheen Bagh on Monday, as she sat on an elevated bed set up for older women, wrapped up in a thick shawl. “So, as mothers, we decided to stand up.”…
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/14/asia/shaheen-bagh-muslim-intl-hnk/index.html
SEE ALSO:
- India’s first-time protesters: Mothers and grandmothers stage weeks-long sit-in against citizenship law – By Niha Masih (Jan 13, 2020, Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/indias-first-time-protesters-mothers-and-grandmothers-stage-weeks-long-sit-in-against-citizenship-law/2020/01/12/431ae9c6-30d5-11ea-971b-43bec3ff9860_ - We Are Seeing, for the First Time, a Sustained Countrywide Movement Led by Women – By Sangbida Lahiri (Jan 13, 2020, The Wire)
https://thewire.in/women/caa-nrc-protests-women - Shaheen soldiers on – By Pheroze L. Vincent (Jan 13, 2020, The Telegraph)
https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/shaheen-bagh-protest-soldiers-on/cid/1735318 - Speaking truth to power, in Shaheen Bagh and beyond – By Natasha Badhwar (Jan 17, 2020, Live Mint)
https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/speaking-truth-to-power-in-shaheen-bagh-and-beyond-11579260128955.html
