Updated: September 23, 2020 2:41:02 pm
Bilkis (right) in Shaheen Bagh on January 14, 2020 (Express Photo: Somya Lakhani)
Even as Delhi faced the coldest winter in more than a century, 82-year-old Bilkis, with a smile on her face and a shawl draped over her shoulders, sat with hundreds of women under a canopied tent in the anti-Shaheen Bagh CAA of the national capital. / NRC sitting in protest for more than three months. In a matter of days, Bilkis and the other elderly women, who participated in the protest became a symbol of resistance and hope, they became fondly known as the “Dadis of Shaheen Bagh”.
TIME magazine has now included Bilkis on its list of “The 100 Most Influential People of 2020”.
Journalist and author Rana Ayyub, who has written the article for TIME magazine, says: “Bilkis became the voice of the marginalized … She became the symbol of resistance in a nation where the voices of women and minorities were being systematically drowned out by the majority politics of the Modi regime. “
Shaheen Bagh’s protest lasted for 101 days and was cleared by Delhi police on March 24 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Shaheen Bagh’s ‘dadis’ graffiti. (Photo Express)
In January, when the Shaheen Bagh sit-in inspired similar protests across the country, Bilkis had said The Indian Express, “We are old and we are not doing this for ourselves… This is for our children. Why else will we spend our days and nights during the coldest winter of our lives outdoors? “
On January 26, Bilkis, along with the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Junaid Khan, raised the national flag at Shaheen Bagh when hundreds of people showed up there for the Republic Day celebrations. At that time, the resistance of the “Dadis of Shaheen Bagh” was also reflected in songs, poems, slogans and graffiti.
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In February, when an armed assailant fired at least two shots from just 50 meters from the stage in Shaheen Bagh, Bilkis was in place near the stage. At that time, she said The Indian Express“There was panic inside the store, but people finally calmed down. We walked to the point where the cartridges were found and offered prayers … These bullets don’t scare us. “
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