The ‘lioness’ of Shaheen Bagh, who climbed on a bulldozer with a broken leg: Arfa Khanum, who was at the forefront of preventing encroachment, raises voice against sexual abuse

High-voltage drama continued throughout the day on Monday regarding running a bulldozer in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh. People protested the use of bulldozers by MCD to remove encroachments. The matter increased so much that the women climbed on top of the bulldozer and said that if the bulldozer has to be run, then we have to pass over our dead body.

In this entire incident, the name of social activist and lawyer Arfa Khanum was very much discussed. Despite having a fracture in her leg, this woman was the first to climb a bulldozer. After which his photo became quite viral from media to social media.

Bhaskar Woman spoke to female activist Arfa Khanum to know the truth of the bulldozer incident in Shaheen Bagh. Read the full story of Shaheen Bagh’s lioness…

Husband and wife both lawyers, NGO running for 8 years
Born and brought up in Delhi, Arfa’s father was a doctor by profession. While he decided to practice law. Arfa says that since she was in the 10th standard, Prayas used to join the NGO and go to teach the children in the slums. From that time it was decided to grow up and do work related to social service. After schooling from Delhi, he studied law at Lloyd’s Law School, Greater Noida. Now she fights in the cases of crime against women in the Sessions Court, High Court and Supreme Court.

In April, on the day of Hanuman Jayanti, encroachment was removed by bulldozer in Jahangirpuri, violence erupted.

Campaign launched to educate slum children
Arfa says that she has been working for a long time to make women aware of their legal rights. In 2014, he started a social organization called Badtee Kadam. In which she used to go to the slums and clusters of Delhi and study the children for free. Many friends joined his organization. Now she runs roti bank, cloth bank as well as makes people aware about government schemes in slums. Fights cases and campaigns against sexual exploitation of women and domestic violence. Along with Arfa, her husband also advocates. Together they work on the case. He also has a young daughter.

Congress leader climbed the bulldozer with a broken leg
Apart from being a social worker, Congress party member Arfa Khanum tells that she lives with her family in G-Block of Shaheen Bagh. The process of removing encroachment from his house was to start from the front. Arfa says that the matter started from 9:30 in the morning. First, there were reports that encroachments would not be removed due to lack of police force. But gradually the atmosphere changed. Earlier, only one tempo was standing by the MCD to remove the encroachment which was brought to remove illegal boards on the roadside. Around 10:30 am suddenly a bulldozer reaches Shaheen Bagh.

Arfa says that when the local people had come to meet the MCD officials, no municipal officer was present with the bulldozer. He also alleged that no notice was issued to the local people to remove the encroachment. It was also not told what is the road-map to remove the encroachment. There is no such thing that even the house and shop of the one whose name is not in the list should be demolished.

People had doubts whether a private bulldozer had come to Shaheen Bagh instead of the government.

The local people feared that the encroachment might not be removed in a wrong way like Delhi’s Jahangirpuri. In that case also the encroachment was stopped after the stay of the Supreme Court. But by the time the orders of the court came, many people had snatched the medium of employment of their family. To prevent an incident like Jahangirpuri, Arfa herself stood on the bulldozer with a broken leg and a walker.

Broken leg in a scuffle, but did not stop
So many people had participated in this protest, which lasted from around 11:30 pm to 12 noon, that the entire Shaheen Bagh roads were blocked. There was a tremendous push and there was a fracture in Arfa’s right leg. She climbed on the bulldozer with her broken leg. Along with them, other women of the area also stood in front of the bulldozer. Slogans were raised that ‘If you want to drive a bulldozer, you will have to pass over us’.

After the protest, 7 people including Arfa were taken to Kalkaji police station. He was kept in the police station under section 65D of IPC and released at 6:30 in the evening. After this Arfa reached the doctor to get plaster on the leg.

The leg was hurt in the morning itself, the woman had reached to protest after getting a bandage.

Slogans were raised fiercely on the NRC dharna in Shaheen Bagh
This is not the first time that Arfa has taken part in the protest. Earlier, she has also participated in the famous NRC dharna of Shaheen Bagh. In this long dharna that lasted for more than 100 days, the women of Shaheen Bagh had blocked the road. At that time also Arfa Khanum had supported the dharna and raised slogans against the government.