Shehla Rashid Shora is an Indian human rights activist who has pursued her Ph.D. at Jawaharlal Nehru University. She was vice-president of the

Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union or JNUSU is a students' union at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The JNUSU follows the student drafted JNUSU constitution. The Students' Union has four central panel positions. These are ...

(JNUSU) in 2015–16 and was a member of the

All India Students Association All India Students' Association (AISA) is a left wing student organisation in India. It describes itself as "the voice of the radical students' movement" and is affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation. The ass ...

(AISA). She rose to prominence whilst leading the student agitation calling for the release for Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and others who were arrested on charges of

sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, estab ...

in February 2016 for participating and organizing sloganeering in JNU.Aranya Shankar, Shikha Sharma (29 February 2016
JNUSU, in Kanhaiya's absence: Shehla holds the fort with Rama, Saurabh charts his own path
''The Indian Express''.Manavi Kapur (12 March 2016)

''Business Standard.'' Retrieved on 7 May 2020. Shora is vocal about the human rights situation in Kashmir, particularly highlighting the plight of minors held in custody awaiting trial, and has been active since 2010 after organising a youth leadership programme in Kashmir.Bismah Malik (15 December 2011
Spreading wings in the Valley
''The Hindu Business Line''. She played a leading role in organising the 'Occupy UGC movement' and the decision to "camp" at University Grants Commission (UGC) headquarters to protest the withdrawal of non- NET fellowship.(22 October 2015)
Students plan all night sit-in to protest scrapping of non-Net fellowship
''Zee News India''. She led the protest march to the Ministry of Human Resources Development to ask for an increase in graduate student stipends.Kritika Sharma Sebastian (6 November 2015)
'Occupy UGC' protest knocks at MHRD doors
''The Hindu''.Manash Pratim Gohain (5 November 2015
UGC fellowship: Students get a say in review panel
''The Times of India.'' On 16 February 2019 Shora posted a tweet stating that a group of Kashmiri girls were trapped in a hostel in Dehra Dun by a mob demanding their expulsion. The Uttarakhand police subsequently filed a first information report against her for disrupting public tranquility and intent to provoke breach of peace by spreading rumours. She had briefly joined the Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement political party, founded by Shah Faesal on 17 March 2019.

Early life and education

Shehla Rashid Shora was born in the old city of

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...

in the Habba Kadal locality. Shora studied computer engineering at the National Institute of Technology, Srinagar and participated in a ten-week certificate programme in political leadership at the

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM Bangalore or IIMB) is a public business school and Institute of National Importance located in Bangalore, India. Founded in 1973, it was the third IIM to be established, after IIM Calcutta and IIM ...

. After graduating from NIT Srinagar she worked as a software engineer with HCL Technologies. She raised the issues of juvenile justice and acid attacks on women in Kashmir but said that "the political space there astoo restricted." Eventually, she joined the Jawaharlal Nehru University, completing an M.A. in sociology and then studying for an MPhil in Law and Governance. She then pursued a PhD from JNU which is based on "how algorithm based decision-making affects policy making".

Activism

Kashmir

Shora is vocal about the human rights situation in Kashmir, particularly for ensuring justice to minor undertrials and has been active since 2010 when she was part of organising a youth leadership programme in Kashmir. She participated in a seminar asking to change internet harassment laws. In 2013, when

Pragaash Pragaash ( ks, प्रागाश्, ''prāgāsh'' — «moonshine») was an all-female Kashmiri rock band consisting of Noma Nazir Bhatt, Aneeqa Khalid and Farah Deeba. The band was formed in December 2012 and received controversy from Isl ...

, an

all-female band An all-female band is a musical group in popular music that is exclusively composed of female musicians. This is distinct from a girl group, in which the female members are solely vocalists, though this terminology is not universally followed. While ...

composed of young Muslim women, faced online harassment and death threats from Islamic conservatives in Kashmir, she came out vocally in support of the band and condemned the online abuse and threats directed at them. She said an interview to the ''Times of India'': "They may quit because of intolerance, rape and murder threats, because of our selectively conservative and hypocritical worldview, because men can issue rape threats to women and no one would call it unIslamic, because men can pinch our butts in the bus and no one would speak up, because men can jack off to item numbers in private but three innocent girls performing in perfectly modest clothing outrages our so-called morality". She launched a counter online campaign 'I support Pragaash, Kashmir's first all-girls' rock band' to mobilise support for the girls.

Delhi

In April 2014 Shora unsuccessfully contested the student election to the Gender Sensitisation Committee against Sexual Harassment (this is the internal complaint committee of JNU that deals with sexual harassment). In September 2015, she contested the election for vice-president of the JNU student union, as the nominee of the Left-backed

, and won it, beating the

ABVP Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) () is a right-wing all India student organisation affiliated to the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). History The ABVP, founded in 1948 with the initiative of the RSS ...

's candidate Valentina Brahma by over 200 votes. She was the first Kashmiri woman to win a student union election at the JNU and the highest polled candidate of that year. She said that there was enough space to articulate her political spirit at the JNU. However, her challenge was to "convince voters in favour of a Kashmir woman from a non-political background." Soon after getting elected, Shora condemned the ban on student politics at the Kashmir University. She said that, if ideas are suppressed, they would resurface in "undesirable ways." In October 2015, she led a protest against the University Grants Commission (UGC) decision to cut student scholarships for MPhil and PhD students except for those that passed the 'national eligibility test'. Under the banner "Occupy UGC," students from the JNU were joined by those from the Delhi University, Jamia Milia Islamia and the Ambedkar University Delhi in protests outside the UGC for over a month. She is said to have ironed out the divergences between the AISA and the JNUSU and turned into the "face of the movement."Kapur, Manavi (17 March 2016)
Meet Shehla Rashid, the firebrand JNU leader
''Rediff News''. Retrieved on 18 May 2020. In February 2016, Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of the JNU students' union, was arrested on sedition charges for sloganeering. Several other student leaders were charged with sedition, including the general secretary Rama Naga and a former president, Ashutosh Kumar. Shehla Rashid ran the union during the interim period as she was the only office bearer not facing charges. Kamal Mitra Chenoy
How Kanhaiya Kumar went from 'anti-national' to freedom icon
Daily O, 5 March 2016. On 14 February 2016, Shehla Rashid gave a speech to a gathering of 3,000-4,000 protesting students and faculty members on the JNU campus following a protest march. On 18 February 2016, around 10,000 people joined a march in defence of JNU through the streets of Delhi, on Shehla Rashid Shora's call. On 2 March, she led a protest march to the Parliament, demanding the repeal of the

law. The protesters also called for the enactment of a 'Rohith Act' for ending caste-based discrimination in educational institutions. The protest was joined by students and teachers from universities across Delhi as well as the families of Rohith Vemula and Umar Khalid.

Controversies

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

Student Union (AMUSU) filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Shehla Rashid in February 2017, alleging that a Facebook post she had made used objectionable language about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. On 27 October 2018, she welcomed newly converted Irish singer Shuhada’ Davitt into a Muslim community which generated online backlash. Several days later Shehla Rashid deactivated her Twitter account (which is now active again). In February 2019,

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...

Police filed a FIR against her for a tweet she posted on 16 February 2019 where she had written "15-20 Kashmiri girls trapped in a hostel in Dehradun for hours now. mobs outside are baying for their blood. Police is present but unable to disperse the mob." Police dismissed her allegation as rumour. The FIR was filed under sections 504, 505 and 153b of the Indian Penal Code. In August 2019, she tweeted that Indian Army was torturing Kashmiris as a consequence of Indian revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status. The allegation was rejected by the army as baseless.

Supreme court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

lawyer Alok Srivastsava filed a complaint under offence of sedition and sought criminal action against Shehla Rashid over her allegations.

Political party

Shehla Rashid had briefly joined

Jammu & Kashmir People's movement The Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement (JKPM) is a political party in Jammu and Kashmir, India. History The party was founded in 2019 by Indian Administrative Service officer Shah Faesal. , the party is currently headed by Dr. Mustafa Khan afte ...

(JKPM), a political party started by former IAS Officer Shah Faesal. However has now resigned from the same.

References

External links

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Shehla Rashid Shora
on Twitter
Shehla Rashid Shora
on Facebook
Shehla Rashid Shora Official Facebook page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rashid, Shehla Living people People from Srinagar National Institute of Technology, Srinagar alumni Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni Student politics in India Indian women activists Women educators from Jammu and Kashmir Educators from Jammu and Kashmir Women in Jammu and Kashmir politics 21st-century Indian politicians 21st-century Indian women politicians Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union Year of birth missing (living people)