Ripples of Shaheen Bagh-like protest in Mumbai: Hundreds of women stage sit-in agitation against CAA

In line with the Shaheen Bagh protests, hundreds of women have taken to streets in south Mumbai's Nagpada area since the night of January 26 against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Holding placards, the women raised slogans like "We all are one" and "Azadi" despite the best efforts of the police to convince people to cooperate. The site of the protest is now being called "Mumbai Bagh". It was organised by the Joint Action Committee on the Morland road outside Arabia Hotel.

"You should love your country but it is not necessary that you also love your government. Chandrashekhar Azad has been detained, he is fighting for all of us. He gets detained wherever he goes...we are sitting here for people like Azad and for the women of Shaheen Bagh. We won't move from here," Fatima, a law student, said while addressing the protestors.

"The government is not taking any stand on it [CAA]. They have stated that they won't take it back so it is dangerous for us as this law is against the Constitution. Nowhere it is written in the Constitution that a Bill can be made based on caste and religion. A few women had started this protest, and now we have also joined it. We are holding the protest after getting inspired by the women of Shaheen Bagh," India Today quoted Fatima as saying. 

While most of the protesters are residents of Muslim-dominated Madanpura, Jhoola Maidan, Apripada, and Mumbai Central areas, they raised slogans hailing Hindu-Muslim unity and brotherhood. 

Senior Nagpada police station inspector Shalini Sharma said she had requested the protesters to take prior permission from the police, but the women refused to budge and continued to occupy the road.

Shaheen Bagh has been the site of a protest where a large number of anti-CAA protesters, primarily women and children, have been camping since December 15.

All women's protest in UP

Over 100 women protested in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal on January 26 against the and NPR. The women protesting at Pakka Bagh Kheda in Nakhasa area raised slogans such as "Hum leke rahenge azadi, CAA se azadi, RSS se azadi, "Gandhi wali azadi" and are demanding rollback of the law.

Local Samajwadi Party MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq, who visited the protesters, assured them of his support. He said, "the government wants to make Muslims second class citizens."

Terming CAA and NRC "undemocratic" and "anti-Muslim", women members of local MLA Iqbal Mahmood's family have also joined the protest.

Barq said the sit-in would continue until the Centre withdraws CAA.

Request denied in Hyderabad 

Hyderabad police denied permission for 48-hour sit-in by women against the on Republic Day. A day before the protest was to be launched at Mir Alam Eidgah, the police clarified on Sunday that no permission was given for the programme.

The Joint Action Committee (JAC) against CAA, NRC and NPR alleged that the police denied the permission less than 24 hours after suggesting the venue.

Women from various walks of life had planned to hold the sit-in at Darul Shifa Grounds in the old city on January 25 and 26 but the police refused permission on the ground that election code of conduct is in force for a by-election to Dabeerpura division of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

(With agency inputs.)