She (Bilkis) is not as excited as the family, her son said. (PROCEEDINGS)
New Delhi:
Bilkis, who became the face of a female-led anti-citizenship law protest at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, said Thursday that she was happy to have been recognized by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2020. , but that would have. I would have been happier if your demand had been satisfied.
The 82-year-old, along with her two friends Asma Khatoon (90) and Sarwari (75), were at the protest site every day, braving a cold winter last December, the coldest in more than a century. The trio was hailed as “Dadis of Shaheen Bagh” on social media.
“When we told her that she had been declared one of the most influential people in the world, she just said ‘it’s okay,'” her son Manzoor Ahmad told PTI by phone.
She is not as excited as the family, said Ahmad, who works as a translator.
“I am grateful to the almighty. I would have been much happier if our demand had been met … if the government had listened to us and given us what we wanted (withdrawal of the Citizenship Amendment Act),” said Bilkis with trembling voice. .
“It is sad that we had to cancel (the protest) because of the disease (COVID-19). I was there until the end,” he said.
Ahmad said his mother had fallen ill in December last year but continued to go to the protest site.
“It was very cold and she had a fever, even though she went to support other women,” she said.
Ahmad said that all the women in his family participated in the protest.
“We are a joint family. So the women took turns participating in the dharna,” he said.
Shaheen Bagh’s protest demanding that the government repeal the law lasted for more than 100 days. It ended in March this year in light of the COVID-19 outbreak and a subsequent government-announced shutdown to contain the spread of the disease.
Also on TIME magazine’s list of India are Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bollywood actor Ayushman Khurrana.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
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