Jamia student holds anti-CAA placards at her wedding, kin follow – india news

Amid ongoing protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, a student of Jamia Millia Islamia decided to mix the personal and political by using anti-CAA placards at her wedding on Monday. Amina Zakiah, a postgraduate student at the varsity who resides in the nearby locality of Abul Fazl Enclave, said she had been attending the protests regularly even two days before her wedding. While her parents are professors at the varsity, the four siblings too have received their higher education at Jamia.

“Being a student of Jamia and a concerned citizen of this country, I had to use my wedding as a platform to raise my voice against the National Register of Citizens and discriminatory CAA as it will affect the secular fabric of our country,” she said.

The family spoke to the groom on Sunday and they readily agreed to participate in this novel mode of protest. In the pictures of the wedding, the bride and groom can be seen holding placards mentioning “No CAA and No NRC” while the rest of the family members hold poems of Faiz and the revolutionary poet Habib Jalib.

Mariyam Zakiah, Amina’s elder sister and an architect said the family was involved in wedding preparations when the CAA protests erupted. “The violence broke out during the last leg of preparations and the mood for the wedding changed. We were thinking of how to deal with this and that is when we thought we should show our angst at the wedding as well,” she said adding that the family had been participating in all protests of the past week despite being busy with the preparations.

Residents of Jamia Nagar have been organising peaceful demonstrations outside the university campus against the alleged police brutality on students and the citizenship law. While protests have spread to different parts of the country injuring and killing several people, the situation outside Jamia has remained peaceful for the past one week.

Zakiah’s family was out shopping for the wedding on December 15 when Delhi police fired tear gas shells and lathicharged protesters after they attempted to march towards Mathura Road. The protests took a violent turn after protesters torched buses and smashed vehicles around New Friends Colony area. Police also entered the campus after they alleged that protesters had entered the campus to hide.

“On December 15, we were planning to go to Jamia but we didn’t because we had work at home. We had no idea it would turn so ugly. Our cousin was returning from shopping when she felt the tear gas burning her eyes. She received messages from her friends trapped in washrooms. It was all very grim,” Mariyam added.

Ask them about the response of the guests and Mariyam said, “We held the placards among our close family members and they are all aware of the situation. We are not that politically active but we have to voice our opinion and dissent. This was a small attempt at that.”