Source: https://consortiumnews.com/2020/03/02/
indian-women-lead-protest-against-new-citizenship-laws/
March 2, 2020
By Alka Kurian
Alka Kurian reports on a striking act of resistance in a patriarchal country where women – but particularly Muslim women – have historically had their rights denied.
Women are among the strongest opponents of two new laws in India that threaten the citizenship rights of vulnerable groups like Muslims, poor women https://theintercept.com/2020/01/30/india-citizenship-act-caa-nrc-assam/, oppressed castes and LGBTQ people.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed in December 2019, fast-tracks Indian citizenship for undocumented refugees from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan https://theconversation.com/indias-new-citizenship-act-legalizes-a-hindu-nation-129024 – but only those who are non-Muslim. Another law – the National Register of Citizens – will require all residents in India to furnish extensive legal documentation to prove their citizenship as soon as 2021.
Critics see the two laws as part of the government’s efforts to redefine the meaning of belonging in India and make this constitutionally secular country a Hindu nation https://theconversation.com/indias-plan-to-identify-illegal-immigrants-could-get-some-muslims-declared-foreign-127652.
Since Dec. 4, 2019, Indians of all ages, ethnicities and religions have been protesting the new citizenship initiatives https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/campus-attacks-nationalists-and-police-alarm-india-s-scientific-community in scattered but complementary nationwide demonstrations. The uprisings have persisted through weeks of arrests, beatings and even killings across India by the police https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/23/india-deadly-force-used-against-protesters.
But the most enduring pocket of resistance is an around-the-clock sit-in of mostly hijab-wearing women in a working-class Delhi neighborhood called Shaheen Bagh.
Women Take Charge
Since Dec. 15, 2019, women of all ages – from students to 90-year-old grandmothers – have abandoned their daily duties and braved near-freezing temperatures https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50902909 to block a major highway in the Indian capital.
This is a striking act of resistance in a patriarchal country where women – but particularly Muslim women https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/the-rise-of-the-new-indian-muslim-woman-analysis/story-NA2GeOguvZn9ETT1NtsDaJ.html – have historically had their rights denied https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-bust-the-patriarchy-masquedaring-as-religion-women-activists-shatter-taboos-about-female-sexuality/340784.
The Shaheen Bagh protests are as novel in their methods as they are in their makeup. Protesters are using artwork, book readings, lectures, poetry recitals, songs, interfaith prayers and communal cooking to explain https://scroll.in/article/948440/the-art-of-resistance-ringing-in-the-new-year-with-anti-caa-protesters-at-shaheen-bagh their resistance to citizenship laws that, they say, will discriminate against not just Muslims but also women, who usually don’t have state or property papers in their own names.
On Jan. 11, women in the Indian city of Kolkata performed a Bengali-language https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/m7qenq/the-rapist-is-you-women-sang-the-bengali-version-of-the-chilean-feminist-anthem-to-oppose-the-caa version of a Chilean feminist anthem called “The Rapist is You.” This choreographed public flash dance, first staged in Santiago, Chile, in November 2019, calls out the police, judiciary and government for violating women’s human rights https://theconversation.com/the-rapist-is-you-why-a-viral-latin-american-feminist-anthem-spread-around-the-world-128488.
A Dangerous Place for Women
India is the world’s most dangerous https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/28/poll-ranks-india-most-dangerous-country-for-women country for women, according to the Thompson Reuters Foundation https://news.trust.org/spotlight/the-worlds-most-dangerous-countries-for-women-2011. One-third of married women are physically abused https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/07/halting-blow-domestic-violence-india-160701121800822.html. Two-thirds of rapes go unpunished https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/12/29/791734411/what-headlines-and-protests-get-wrong-about-rape-in-india.
Gender discrimination is so pervasive that around 1 million female fetuses https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/resource-pdf/UNFPA_Publication-39857.pdf are aborted https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20879612 each year. In some parts of India, there are 126 men for every 100 women https://wiki.ubc.ca/Sex_Selective_Abortion_in_India#Sex_Ratios.
Indian women have come together in protest https://theswaddle.com/a-brief-history-of-indian-women-protesting-gender-inequality/ before, to speak out against these and other issues. But most prior women’s protests https://www.academia.edu/24968867/Women_Are_Not_For_Burning_The_Anti-Dowry_Movement_in_Delhi_1 were limited in scope and geography. The 2012 brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old Delhi woman https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/women-front-lines-india-citizenship-law-protests-191223061447173.html – which sparked nationwide protests – was a watershed moment. All at once, the country witnessed the power of women’s rage.
The current women-led anti-citizenship law demonstrations https://www.liberationnews.org/largest-ever-strike-indian-workers-show-strength-against-the-far-right-government/ are even greater in number and power. Beyond Shaheen Bagh, Indian women across caste, religion and ethnicity are putting their bodies https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/india-women-rescued-friend-police-attack-viral-video-191216150934526.html and reputations on the line.
Video
Shaheen. Bagh protest new song CAA NRC https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=e25KmRTb5RM&feature=emb_logo
Female students are intervening to shield fellow students https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3wtJ8oHpFQ from police violence https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/dozens-injured-india-police-storm-universities-191216033648272.html at campus protests. Actresses https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/entertainment-news-swara-riteish-taapsee-shabana-azmi-and-other-bollywood-celebrities-react-to-jnu-violence/345266 from Bollywood https://indianexpress.com/article/india/jnu-violence-attack-deepika-padukone-aishe-ghosh-chhapaak-6211979/, India’s film industry, are speaking out against gender violence https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/celebrities/story/priyanka-chopra-on-caa-protests-each-voice-will-work-towards-changing-india-1629553-2019-12-19, too.
Women’s Secular Agenda
With their non-violent tactics and inclusive strategy, the Shaheen Bagh women are proving to be effective critics of the government’s Hindu-centric agenda https://www.boell.de/en/2014/02/26/patriarchal-politics-struggle-genuine-democracy-contemporary-india. Their leaderless epicenter of resistance raises up national symbols https://scroll.in/article/948440/the-art-of-resistance-ringing-in-the-new-year-with-anti-caa-protesters-at-shaheen-bagh like the Indian flag, the national anthem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3J2i8l3AVY and the Indian Constitution as reminders that India is secular and plural – a place where people can be both Muslim and Indian.
The Shaheen Bagh movement’s novel and enduring strategy has triggered activism elsewhere in the country https://www.siasat.com/every-place-shaheen-bagh-nandita-das-joins-caa-nrc-protest-1803853/.
Thousands of women https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/shaheen-bagh-inspires-many-protests-across-the-country/cid/1736089 in the northern Indian city of Lucknow started their own sit-in https://thewire.in/communalism/lucknow-women-anti-caa-sit-in-protest in late January. Similar “Shaheen Baghs” have sprung up since, in the cities of Patna https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/shaheen-bagh-inspires-many-protests-across-the-country/cid/1736089 and even Chennai https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/inspired-by-shaheen-bagh-women-lead-protests-against-caa/article30832555.ece, which is located 1,500 miles from Delhi.
Global Women’s Spring
India’s Shaheen Bagh protests form part of a broader global trend in women’s movements https://theconversation.com/urban-unrest-propels-global-wave-of-protests-126306. Worldwide, female activists are combining attention to women’s issues with a wider call for social justice across gender, class and geographic borders.
In January 2019 alone, women in nearly 90 countries https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/19/womens-march-london-against-austerity-protesters-worldwide took to the streets demanding equal pay, reproductive rights and the end of violence. Young women were also at the forefront of the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3025146/protesttoo-women-forefront-hong-kongs-anti-government-movement, Lebanon https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/08/lebanese-women-demand-new-rights-amid-political-turmoil, Sudan https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/sudan-women-protesters-leading-pro-democracy-movement-190423134521604.html, Brazil https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/11/brazil-women-bolsonaro-haddad-election/574792/ and Colombia https://colombiareports.com/women-take-the-lead-on-5th-day-of-colombias-anti-government-protests/.
As I write in my 2017 book https://www.routledge.com/New-Feminisms-in-South-Asian-Social-Media-Film-and-Literature-Disrupting/Jha-Kurian/p/book/9781138668935, such inclusive activism is the defining characteristic of what’s called “fourth wave feminism.”
There isn’t a common definition https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth of the first three feminist waves. In the United States, they generally refer to the early 20th century suffragist movement, the radical women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s and the more mainstream feminism of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Fourth wave feminism appears to be more universal. Today’s activists fully embrace the idea that women’s freedom means little if other groups are still oppressed. With its economic critique https://www.deccanherald.com/national/west/caa-to-divert-peoples-attention-from-economic-crisis-793876.html, disavowal of caste oppression https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/chandrashekhar-azad-shaheen-bagh-caa-nrc-protests-bhim-army-constitution-1639238-2020-01-22 and solidarity across religious divides https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/478570-protesting-women-in-india-are-uniting-muslims-hindus-and-religious, India’s Shaheen Bagh sit-in shares attributes with the women’s uprisings in Chile, Lebanon, Hong Kong and beyond.
The last time women came together in such numbers worldwide was the #MeToo movement https://thewire.in/gender/metoo-campaign-brings-the-rise-of-fourth-wave-feminism-in-india, a campaign against sexual harassment which emerged on social media in the United States in 2017 https://theconversation.com/metoo-campaign-brings-conversation-of-rape-to-the-mainstream-85875 and quickly spread across the globe.
Shaheen Bagh and similarly far-reaching women’s uprisings underway in other countries take #MeToo to the next level, moving from a purely feminist agenda to a wider call for social justice. Women protesters want rights – not just for themselves, but human rights for all.
*Alka Kurian is senior lecturer at the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, Bothell.
Emma Olive 