Three Years Of Incarceration: Feminist Solidarity To Gulfisha Fatima

Gulfisha Fathima is one in every of many activists focused by the Delhi Police for her vocal dissatisfaction with the CAA and the NRC. She was arrested on eighth April 2020 and is but to obtain bail, regardless of her finishing 3 years of incarceration.  

The story goes again to 2020; particularly, the anti-CAA and NRC protests and Delhi riots. When the anti-CAA and NRC protests broke out in India, Gulfisha was residing on her personal in North Delhi. She tried to influence her mother and father to allow her to go to Shaheen Bagh however they have been adamant, “It’s too removed from the place you reside”, they mentioned. Nevertheless, when she heard in regards to the Seelampur demonstrations, she was able to take part. Though she wasn’t a part of any pupil teams or political events, she felt included within the vulnerability of the ladies protesting round her.

She discovered her method of constructing a distinction actual fast – by instructing the Hindi and English alphabet to the ladies on the protest website. Someday whereas strolling again residence from the sit-in, she additionally informed her brother, Atiq, that she needed to pursue a PhD after her MBA. 

However none of this mattered to the Delhi Police. Irked by the boldness of a younger Muslim lady talking up towards the federal government, they arrested Fatima for costs of rioting and assaulting a public servant. Earlier than she might apply for bail, they booked her for “conspiracy” beneath the UAPA, amongst different acts. She was additionally linked to the demise of an 18-year-old Muslim man, Amaan, 5 months after that FIR was registered. Though she obtained bail for all different instances, she stays in jail 3 years later due to the UAPA. 

Additionally Learn: Feminist Solidarity To Sharjeel Imam

Like Gulfisha, many vocal activists and journalists have been arrested beneath the Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act (UAPA). A disproportionate quantity of arrests beneath the UAPA have focused minorities and in addition intellectuals, political critics, commerce unionists, legal professionals, and activists. The UAPA is modelled on the earlier anti-terrorist legal guidelines of India, which have already been discredited attributable to their ample misuse by the police and intensely unconstitutional measures.

In actual fact, the UAPA is worse than each the sooner counter-terror legislations of India, the Terrorist & Disruptive Actions (Prevention) Act, 1985 (TADA) & Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA). A number of the most harmful elements of the act embody; 

• A broad, subjective, and ambiguous definition of the time period “terrorist act”.
• Risk of arresting a “suspected particular person” primarily based on “any doc, article, or every other factor” and informing the suspect “as quickly as could also be”.
• Pre-charge detention of 180 days, even when the general public prosecutor doesn’t furnish sufficient proof towards the accused.
• The denial of bail primarily based on the courtroom’s discretion.
• Shift within the burden of proof onto the accused and denial of their proper to stay silent.
• The power of the Indian Authorities to freeze property or stop the entry of the accused into India primarily based on mere suspicion. 

This blatant misuse of energy permits the police to slap bogus costs on anybody they wish to implicate, detain them, and deny them bail with out even an precise conviction. According to a report by the Individuals’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), 97.2% of UAPA accused are arrested for lengthy durations of time to lastly be acquitted of their cost. Utilizing these loopholes, the Delhi Police has continued to maintain Gulfisha behind bars for costs of “conspiracy” behind the violence of February 2020 in Delhi.  

Her household is flabbergasted, as a result of they thought that she was only one amongst 100 different ladies silently making their calls for heard towards the CAA and NRC.

Her father, Tanseef Hussain, in a video circulating on Twitter, informed folks that he’s depressed and misplaced on the considered his daughter behind bars. He believes solely in Allah’s hukum (God’s regulation) and doesn’t look after the corrupt authorized system on earth.

Her father’s ache was exasperated additional by Gulfisha’s cries at her default bail listening to. She broke down and complained to the courtroom that she was dealing with immense harassment by the authorities, who referred to as her an “educated terrorist” and hurled communal slurs at her. She exclaimed to the decide, “I’m dealing with psychological harassment right here. If I damage myself, solely jail authorities will probably be liable for it”. Regardless of her pleas, she was refused bail, though, the courtroom mentioned that they may change the jail employees. 

Additionally Learn: Agony Of Natasha Narwal And Different Unlawfully Arrested Political Prisoners

Quite a few social media campaigns and hashtags like #FreeGul have since emerged as a response to her arbitrary arrest. A number of organisations have additionally come out in assist of Gulfisha and have launched a joint assertion.

The statement raises pertinent questions and zealously asserts that “Her ‘crime’ is that she determined to talk out towards a authorities and an ideology of hate that dehumanises and inflicts probably the most brutal violence on Muslim lives. Her ‘crime’ is that she believed and labored for the training, management, and emancipation of girls who’ve been traditionally marginalised, that she dreamed of feminist citizenship. Her crime is that she loudly sang “nidaar azaad ho jayegi, woh toh naya zamaana layegi,” (fearlessly, she will probably be emancipated, she’s going to convey a brand new tomorrow).

Gulfisha Fatima’s and each Indian’s freedom is presently dictated by the Indian Authorities’s prerogative. These jurisdictions and authorized loopholes, together with issues with administration and abuse of energy, have led to a suffocating chilling impact amongst Indians. It deters everybody, particularly minorities and critics of the ruling Authorities, from exercising their proper to free speech and expression and talking out towards the authoritarian, oppressive, and bigoted realities of the nation. Furthermore, these arrests, harassment, and intimidation ways outright deny the humanity of these affected by the State’s wrath. 

With nearly each day information of one other particular person both detained, booked, or threatened with the UAPA, folks can get desensitised to the disturbing tyranny that minorities are presently dealing with every single day. Nevertheless, we’ve to recollect, as Safoora Zargar mentioned in one of many stories, that “The loss that they [the incarcerated people]  are dealing with now won’t ever be compensated. Justice delayed is justice denied”. The traumatizing state of affairs that many, like Gulfisha, are presently dealing with must constantly be denounced and fought towards. We can not allow them to erase the data of those oppressive ways from public reminiscence. 

Additionally Learn: ‘Take Out The Bugs From Your Meals And Eat It’: Ladies Political Prisoners Recount Jail Horror Tales