82-year-old Bilkis, featured in Time magazine’s list, says would have been happier if demand met

After getting featured in Time Magazine ‘100 Most Influential People of 2020’ list, the 82-year-old Bilkis, the face of women-led anti-citizenship Act protests at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, said she is happy to get the recognition but would have been happier if her demand had been met.

Bilkis, along with her two friends Asma Khatoon (90) and Sarwari (75), sat at Shaheeh Bagh every day since December last year, protesting against the newly passed Citizenship Amendment Act. They called off their protests because of the outbreak of coronavirus. She and her two friends were hailed as “Dadis of Shaheen Bagh” on social media.

When Bilkis was told that she has been featured in the Time magazine’s list, she said, ‘Okay’, her son Manzoor Ahmad told PTI. Bilkis is not as excited as her family is, he added.

The 82-year-old in a trembling voice said, “I am thankful to the almighty. I would have been much happier had our demand been fulfilled…had the government listened to us and given us what we wanted (withdrawal of the CAA).”

“It is sad we had to call it (protest) off because of the disease (COVID-19). I was there till the end,” she said. Ahmed said Bilkis continued to go to the protest site every day despite she had been taken ill in December last year.

Featured in Times, the article on her has been authored by journalist Rana Ayyub that talks of how Bilkis became the voice and face of the protesters who refused to move despite the biting winter cold of Delhi. The 82-year-old protester had told Ayyub that she would never give up. “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.”