{"id":17524,"date":"2025-04-13T04:14:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T04:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=17524"},"modified":"2025-04-13T04:14:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T04:14:20","slug":"india-i-long-for-freedom-gulfisha-fatima-on-five-years-of-incarceration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=17524","title":{"rendered":"India: ‘I Long for Freedom’: Gulfisha Fatima on Five Years of Incarceration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“I firmly believe that the general public of India is neither intolerant nor violent innately. I take a sigh of relief to see people striving for unity and stability in such a highly polarised current world.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gulfisha Fatima was arrested on April 9, 2020, when she was 26 years old. She has been in jail for the last five years. Below is a letter she wrote to her friends from prison recently, talking about the last five years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hello,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At night I watch news and debates on TV. It does not only appear, but it is also evident to anybody having sanity that the shouting modified mainstream media is hell bent upon making general public feel that you were exploited, humiliated, tortured by a particular community not by an autocratic political regime. The partisan media portray that whatever unpleasant even today happens to you the only reason is a particular community. Not all minorities are vilified as overtly as \u201ca particular community\u201d. Despite all, I firmly believe that the general public of India is neither intolerant nor violent innately. I take a sigh of relief to see people striving for unity and stability in such a highly polarised current world. One more thing I have come to feel that religion and politics go parallel invariably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last page of Gulfisha Fatima\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last time in the courtroom, noticing my father stuttering, I asked him since when you have started getting such difficulty? He whispered, \u201cHamesha darr ka ehsaas hota rehta hai jaise abhi kuch bura honewala hai isliye atak jata hu bolte bolte<\/em> [I am constantly afraid that something bad is going to happen, and so I get stuck while speaking].\u201d His words which are inevitable have stuck in my mind and keep popping up intermittently. When my parents are invited to attend any seminar or programme organised in solidarity with our struggle, seeing that people still dare speak for unity, peace, justice and speak against suppression, demonisation, injustice. They feel less stressed for some time. The most applaudable aspect of their support is that they have not seen us, not even know us personally. Nevertheless, are standing by us for a common cause. Honestly speaking I get overwhelmed to receive such selfless affection from people having different or similar ideology, faith and belief system. There are such people that don\u2019t let differences turn into dispute at large in the interest of humanity and united India. They deserve tremendous respect and love specially from \u201ca particular community\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coming Eid-ul-fitr will be my 6th Eid to be celebrated over here. For that day I have bought some jewellery designed [at the] stitching center and Kaajal. I don\u2019t spare any chance of celebrating, be it Raksha bandhan, women\u2019s day, Holi, easter etc. When I tie Rakhi, I ask my fellow inmates to protect me from \u2026\u2026\u2026.. in lieu of Rakhi. Hehehe\u2026 in fact I grab every opportunity to fill myself with auspicious vibes of festivity. Since I believe in full acceptance of reality so why too much worry.  I would do this and that if I were outside. The reality is that I am here in jail. Now it is solely my responsibility to take a call on as to how I should lead my mind and soul. Sometimes, I sound philosophical to myself but inadvertently the fact is that captivity has made me more spiritual. I wish [those] who consider themselves religious should also open their door for their soul to walk on the path of spirituality. Being spiritually aware doesn\u2019t mean that one stops experiencing pain, disappointment, disorientation. It all happens indeed. I long for freedom crazily and feel excruciating darkness of interminable uncertainty for release. But it has helped me realise the sheer fragility of life. Last month I was reading Vivekananda sahitya in Hindi. I found many of his thoughts great. We need to understand his viewpoints in a broader context which can potentially convince common people about beauty of differences and diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also read: Living in the Time of Gulfisha Fatima<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, I must thank to my family, friends, lawyers and everybody who did not leave me behind, but rather remained stood by my side like a pillar to offer me solace, solidarity and support throughout the five years of nonsense imprisonment. Without their presence and love, this journey would have been extremely devastating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully on 16th April 2025 I will have completed five years of jail life. I shall celebrate this day also to mark my survival in the most bizarre circumstances of struggle. Though incarceration has done no harm to my body, yet it has successfully managed to inflict on my mental health. The retention power of memory has deteriorated so badly that I forget even to call my mom very often.  I am going somewhere to do something suddenly on the way I forget where I was heading to and for what. Then what to do, I just laugh at this condition. It really makes me laugh a lot. Hahaha\u2026 Khair! Faiz\u2019s poetry seems to work for me in an unexpected way. Whenever I feel very low I resort to reading his poetry for two three days then it all vanishes in air. Thank you, Faiz <3 for your legacy. I leave you with two couplets composed by him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u091a\u0932\u094b \u0906\u0913 \u0924\u0941\u092e\u0915\u094b \u0926\u093f\u0916\u093e\u092f\u0947\u0902 \u0939\u092e, \u091c\u094b \u092c\u091a\u093e \u0939\u0948 \u092e\u0915\u093c\u0924\u0932\u0947 \u0936\u0939\u0930 \u092e\u0947\u0902
\u092f\u0947 \u092e\u091c\u093c\u093e\u0930 \u0905\u0939\u0932\u0947-\u0938\u092b\u093c\u093e \u0915\u0947 \u0939\u0948\u0902, \u092f\u0947 \u0905\u0939\u0932\u0947-\u0938\u093f\u0926\u0915\u093c \u0915\u0940 \u0924\u0941\u0930\u094d\u092c\u0924\u0947\u0902<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u092e\u0947\u0930\u0940 \u091c\u093e\u0928 \u0906\u091c \u0915\u093e \u0917\u092e \u0928 \u0915\u0930 \u0915\u0947\u0903 \u0928 \u091c\u093e\u0928\u0947 \u0915\u093e\u0924\u093f\u092c\u0947 \u0935\u0915\u094d\u0924 \u0928\u0947
\u0915\u093f\u0938\u0940 \u0905\u092a\u0928\u0947 \u0915\u0932 \u092e\u0947\u0902 \u092d\u0940 \u092d\u0942\u0932\u0915\u0930 \u0915\u0939\u0940\u0902 \u0932\u093f\u0916 \u0930\u0939\u0940 \u0939\u094b \u092e\u0938\u0930\u0924\u0947\u0902<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference Link:- https:\/\/thewire.in\/rights\/gulfisha-fatima-letter-five-years<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I firmly believe that the general public of India is neither intolerant nor violent innately. I take a sigh of relief to see people striving for unity and stability in such a highly polarised current world.” Gulfisha Fatima was arrested on April 9, 2020, when she was 26 years old. She has been in jail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[12116,16109,16106,7796,9293,490,16102,16103,16105,39,16110,16108,2701,2682,15286,15673,16104,1803,16107,60],"class_list":["post-17524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-black-laws","tag-draconian-rule","tag-gulfisha-fatima","tag-hindu-extremism","tag-hindutva","tag-human-rights","tag-ilegal-detention","tag-ilegitimate-arrests","tag-incarceration","tag-india","tag-india-i-long-for-freedom-gulfisha-fatima-on-five-years-of-incarceration","tag-injiustice","tag-intolerance","tag-minorities","tag-muslims-marganalized","tag-muslims-targetted","tag-racist-regime","tag-rss","tag-violent-innately","tag-geopolitics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17526,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17524\/revisions\/17526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}