Aas Mohammed Kaif, Twocircles.net
Deoband: Thousands of women took to streets on Tuesday to protest against CAA ( Citizenship Amendment Act) and NRC ( National Registry of Citizens) shouting slogans of ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ and waving the tricolor. They were joined by children and many of them were carrying their small ones in their laps. It could be seen in the protest. After marching the streets they all gathered at the Eidgah grounds where they expressed their grief over the discrimination meted to the Muslims of the nation. The protest was under the leadership of the wives and daughters of well-known Ulema of Deoband but it was a success because of the efforts of four unknown students.
The public meeting at the Eidgah ground was led by Atiya Usman the wife of Qari Usman Mansurpuri and Khadija Madani the niece of the General Secretary of Maulana Mehmood Madani. A number of women along with Imrana the sister of Maulana Arshad Madani also participated in the protest. During the protest, the women were overcome with emotions many times. They were later joined by the former MLA Maviya Ali’s wife Zahira Fathima and social worker Rakshanda Ruhi who played a prominent role in the protest.
According to Fatima Almas, one of the protestors, ‘India is a secular nation and anything against the secular values of the nation pose a danger to the Secularism of India. Unfortunately, the government has forgotten the brotherhood and the diverse culture of the country. They are bent on breaking this. Recently on 20th December, the police committed excesses and oppressed the Muslims in U P. Muslims are continuously being oppressed which should never happen because Muslims have always loved the nation more than their lives. And our ancestors have sacrificed their lives for this country. The CAA has come into force just to sideline and discriminate against the Muslims and this will have dangerous consequences.’
The protest took place under the banner of “Women’s action committee” which has 10 local women and one of them is the niece of Maulana Madani, Khadija Madani. The march took place for around 4 hours after which all the women gathered at the Eidgah ground where it was a mass public meeting.
The protest march was possible mainly due to the efforts of the students of the 4 colleges who went door to door inviting and motivating the Muslim women to hit the streets for the mass protest. One of them by name, Muntaha said, “The Home Minister has said that he will not budge an inch and our reply to him is that we will not budge even half an inch from our stance because we are aware that our fight is to save our constitution and the future of our nation.”
Muntaha Khan says she is inspired by the women of Shaheenbagh who have been protesting for a month. The whole world is talking about the Shaheen Bagh protest. Says Muntaha, “Modi ji says that Muslims are being misled and that they have not understood the CAA. But the truth is that the Muslims have seen through the conspiracy of CAA then NPR and NRC and have now united to protest and voice their rights.”
18-year-old Zuveria says, “The Act has not come into force just for the women of Shaheen Bagh but for everyone all over India so why only they should protest, we too should join in the protests in all the states. It is the right of every person to a peaceful protest. We are not against any Hindus but this act is discriminatory and we want the PM to take back this black law. It is clearly a conspiracy to make Muslims 2nd class citizens.’
Khadija Madani the niece of the general secretary of Jamiat ulema-e-hind who was active in this protest, says, ‘Our ancestors fought for the freedom of this country and gave so many sacrifices and today we are being given this treatment. We are being discriminated on the grounds of religion. People from other religions should also join this movement and support us. We will continue our protest.’
Zahira Fatima, wife of ex-chairperson Maviya Ali accused the government of discriminating against Muslims and said, ‘Modi ji is snatching away our children’s share of happiness. His government has been discriminating against Muslims which has come to the forefront all these years. The consequences of CAA will be severe. Many people in the country are unemployed and there are still many other problems with which the government is not at all serious. But they want to break the secular structure of the nation which we will not allow.’
After the protest at the Eidgah ground, a petition was submitted to his excellence the president of India by the women’s joint action committee leader Khadija Madani through Sarita Singh, a police officer .