Women are appalled that Bilkis’ rapists are out
Ever since we came to know about the release of Bilkis Bano’s rapists, who were also convicted of murdering members of her family, members of several women’s rights groups have been agitated
Ever since we came to know about the release of Bilkis Bano’s rapists, who were also convicted of murdering members of her family, members of several women’s rights groups have been agitated. We wanted to know whether all women around us are similarly affected.

As the discussions in our Whatsapp group, Feminist Protests Bombay progressed, we were reminded of how in the early days of the feminist movement in Mumbai, we would go to women’s compartments of local trains and find them to be a safe space where gender issues could be discussed. We thought of doing the same thing to understand what ordinary Indian women thought about the case.
On Monday afternoon, a few of us gathered at Churchgate station. We hopped on to a train, and spoke to every person in the compartment. We asked them if they knew about the remittance and if so, how did it make them feel. We also had a leaflet that contained all the gory details of the crime. We also spoke to them about the case, and if they agreed with us that the Gujarat government’s decision was wrong, we asked them to sign a petition.
We went from Churchgate to Borivali and back to Dadar, climbing into women’s compartments of eight to 10 trains in a span of three hours. We also spoke to people at the stations between our train hops for over three hours. We ensured that we conveyed the atrocities that Bilkis was subjected to in a dignified and respectful manner.
We found that 70% of the people we spoke to didn’t really know about the case. This could be due to a lot of media houses not reporting about it at all. After we told them, though, a majority of the people expressed anger. They were appalled at the thought of these men being out of prison. They even believed that the culprits should be given capital punishment, even though Bilkis herself has said that she doesn’t want that.
The volunteers were really touched by some of the gestures shown by the public. A transwoman named Zoya gave each of us a coin as a token of her blessings. Some women in the compartments even offered us food and water. There were shy girls who kept asking questions and a very emotional woman who ensured that every woman in the vicinity signed the petition, handing them the form herself without waiting for the volunteers to approach them. Many women thanked us for working on this important topic, and asked what they could do to support us. We had a few people giving out their phone numbers so they could participate in the next such activity planned.
There were, of course, a few people who were not too pleased with what the volunteers were saying. One asked us what we did when Hindu women were the victims, another objected to us stating that Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat at the time of the incident.
We would be conducting more such activities to gather support for Bilkis. All the signatures collected would be sent to the Supreme Court soon. We have also been actively discussing the issue on social media. Those wishing to support the movement can connect with the group at faowindia@yahoo.co.in.
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