Thousands Of Women Turned Up At Mumbai’s Anti-CAA Protest. All Around The Country, Women Are Taking Charge
What if our parents told us when we were toddlers that we don’t have the ability to walk and if we try, our legs will break? We wouldn’t have ever tried and then we’d pass on the same message to our kids and then we’d become a crawling species. This sounds pretty much what was done to women for centuries in our country. A bunch of insecure men realised that women are fierce beings so they decided to contain them and tell them they are weak. The successors just believed them and consequently, women too lost their confidence and thought that’s just how it’s supposed to be. Today, we are suffering from years and years of manipulation and suppression but women are in no mood to buy into that ideology. So when the masses are going out and protesting against CAA and NRC, women are not going to sit in their kitchens while the men go out to fight for our rights. If anything, women have been leading the anti-CAA protests and creating waves that refuse to go unnoticed.
Inspired by the ongoing Shaheen Bagh protests, Mumbai Citizens Forum held an anti-CAA protest in Mumbai’s YMCA grounds on Friday evening that lasted through the night. They were expecting a turnout of 3000 to 4000 but 10,000 women left everything aside to join the protest. In the middle of political turmoil, women of India are coming to the forefront exhibiting immense strength and resilience.
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Ironically, a female politician present at the protest said, “I was worried if women would stay after 7 pm…But now I see that not a single woman has budged from here, in spite of the shivering cold.” Excuse me but that feels like a back-handed compliment to me. You see the problem is that women are believed to be weak. What does that even mean? Women have the strength to deliver babies, but we can’t withstand a little cold? At least, now the politician knows that women are capable of much more than what is expected out of us so maybe they should stop undermining us.
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Meanwhile, a politician, somewhere in a pro-CAA rally said, “The atmosphere is being vitiated by pushing women into protests.” He said that in reference to the increasing number of anti-CAA protests being held across the country including those at Lucknow’s Clock Tower and Prayagraj Mansoor Ali park. But guess what, we have learnt to fight the sexist nonsense we are subjected to, every single day. Women protestors are holding up and can’t be moved by such gender-based attacks.
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Which is probably why, at Lucknow clock tower when UP police decided to stoop really low and snatch away the food and blankets from female protestors, they still didn’t budge. Calling out the police bravely for conducting such atrocities, women were heard shouting “Uttar Pradesh ki chor police” for stealing their essentials.
ALSO READ: The Biggest Narrative Emerging Out Of The CAA Protests Is That Women Have Voices, We’re Fierce And We’ll Protest
Somewhere in Aligarh, an FIR was filed against 60 women for carrying out an anti-CAA protest. Clearly, the so-called custodians of our country are taken aback by women spearheading anti-CAA protests. However, this is not the first time that women have been the torchbearers of change. From Chipko movement to Narmada Bachao Andolan, women of our country have time and again proven that we are fierce and can bring an entire nation to mend its ways if we come down to it.
