Bilkis, an 82-year-old woman, is among TIME magazine’s hundred most influential people of the year. She has been a part of the Shaheen Bagh protests ever since the Indian government passed the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which could block Muslims from citizenship in the country, in December, and she continued through the cold winter.
Journalist Rana Ayyub, describes her first meeting with Bilkis, “when I first met Bilkis, she sat in the midst of a crowd, surrounded by young women who were protesting with placards displaying verses of revolution. With prayer beads in one hand and the national flag in the other.”
“I will sit here till blood stops flowing in my veins so the children of this country and the world breathe the air of justice and equality,” Rana Ayyub quoted her as saying.
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Bilkis has been featured among TIME magazine’s hundred most influential people, as a recognition so the world acknowledges the power of resistance against tyranny. She became the voice of the marginalized in India, along with thousands of women who joined her in Shaheen Bagh, a neighbourhood in New Delhi, which became a symbol of resistance against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
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Rushda Fathima Khan is the Staff Reporter for The Cognate.
