Compass Gender: Shaheen Bagh Protest Carries on in Wake of Shooting

The main protest area of Delhi's Shaheen Bagh. (Wikimedia Commons)

A Hindu nationalist shooter fired on a women-led protest against India’s Citizenship Act Amendment (CAA) in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh neighborhood on February 1. Rather than disperse, protesters at the site have vowed to continue demonstrating until the Act is repealed. 

The CAA has faced intense opposition since its passage in December. The law grants a fast-track to Indian citizenship for religious minorities fleeing persecution in three nearby countries -- except for Muslims. Critics fear that India’s Muslim community will face deportation or detention. 

The CAA’s proposed National Register of Citizens, which would require all residents to submit documentation proving their citizenship to the government, exacerbates concerns. Many Indians living in poverty lack such documentation, prompting predictions of a widespread crisis of statelessness for India’s poor. 

Women feel particularly targeted by the legislation. Tarannum Begum, a female protester, explained, "I don't have a husband, and us ladies don't even get property papers...Everything is in the name of the husband, so how will a woman prove [citizenship] through her papers?" Fellow activist Rehana Khatun named her daughter as her primary motivation, saying, “I don't want her to grow up in a detention centre.” Concerned for their lives and the wellbeing of their families, women have taken it upon themselves to speak out against the CAA.

The sit-in in Shaheen Bagh began on December 15 in response to police violence toward anti-CAA protesters at Jamia Milia Islamia University, a predominantly Muslim university about a mile away from the neighborhood. Hundreds of women braved unusually frigid winter conditions to participate, aided by volunteers who supplied food, tea, and medicine. 

As weeks passed and the women remained, female activists across India began organizing their own protests, some of which brought together tens of thousands of participants. Though the movement drew international praise, several prominent politicians in India have condemned the demonstrations. Lawmakers in some cities have cracked down on anti-CAA protests, spurring police to harass, detain, and even attack participants in women-led demonstrations.

Opposition to the protests became violent when a Hindu nationalist opened fire on a protest at Jamia Milia Islamia on January 30, injuring one participant. Only two days later, a Hindu fundementalist targeted the Shaheen Bagh demonstration, shouting, “Only Hindus will rule.” Though the shooter aimed upward, rather than into the crowd, some protesters panicked: “Many women and children were inside the tent when the incident occurred. We rushed to the spot on hearing a gunshot. Everyone is scared,” one protester said.

Despite the attackers’ fundamentalist motivations, participants in the protests point out that the movement has brought together Indians of all religions. Sarah Ahmed, a protester in the city of Allahabad, noted, “people from different religions and beliefs are participating and standing in solidarity with us.” 

In the aftermath of the gunshot women gathered at the site, singing the national anthem and forming a human chain. The protesters, many of whom had remained at the demonstration for weeks, expressed no intention of abandoning their cause. One demonstrator put it in clear terms: “We just want the government to revoke this law. Till then we will not leave the site.”