Hundreds join Free Gulfisha Campaign in India, abroad, perform her poems

Counterview Desk

On April 9, Gulfisha Fatima marked five years in prison under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). She was arrested for her involvement in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). During her time in Tihar Jail, Gulfisha has written poetry that reflects themes of resistance, memory, and defiance.

Her poetry is claimed to have inspired readings, translations, songs, and artwork shared across social media platforms and performed in various cities. Week-long events are said to have amplified her voice and highlighted the importance of solidarity in the face of adversity.

A statement by Free Gulfisha Fatima Campaign:

***

On 9th April this year, Gulfisha Fatima, a young Muslim woman from North East Delhi and a Delhi University graduate had spent 5 long years imprisoned as an undertrial prisoner under the draconian UAPA - jailed on entirely fabricated charges for her role in the peaceful movement for equal citizenship against the CAA-NPR-NRC. From her tiny cell in Tihar Jail No. 6, Gulfisha, lovingly known as Gul, has penned deeply poignant, heart-wrenching poetry - poems that rage, remember, and resist.

In response to the campaign demanding Gulfisha's release, something really special and extraordinary has unfolded over the last few days. Gulfisha's defiant verses have stirred countless hearts sparking a wave of solidarity. Activists, lawyers, students, scholars, journalists, writers, poets, artists, theatre practitioners, actors, film-makers, friends and common citizens - have come together to demand her release. The FreeGulfisha social media accounts are becoming a growing archive of resistance - flooded with impassioned readings of Gul's poems and powerful artwork inspired by her writings. Gul's poems have been read aloud in homes and classrooms, in streets and parks. They are being translated into multiple languages Telugu, Bengali, Punjabi and more. Her poetry is being composed into hauntingly beautiful songs. Poetry reading events were organised in Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, Dharamshala and Churu, even internationally in Birmingham, Amsterdam & Hague - many more are being planned.

What began as a campaign to help Gul's voice break through prison walls has transformed into something profoundly moving and momentous. Her words have not only flown free-they have set us free too. In the wake of brutal state repression and arrests, a paralysing fear and enforced silence had gripped many of us. Gul's tender and resilient verses have helped us confront that fear within to rekindle our courage. It has been heartening to witness the large number of young women across the country and abroad who have come forward to extend support to the campaign. Her poems have not only carried her voice beyond the bars-they have inspired so many others into speech, remembrance and resistance. Her writings have given us a voice.

Some prominent names that have extended solidarity to Gul include: Ratna Pathak Shah, Swara Bhaskar, Naseeruddin Shah and Zeeshan Ayyub from Bollywood, film-makers Shonali Bose and Sanjay Kak, journalists Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Rana Ayyub and Paranjoy Guha, senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, writers Amitava Kumar and Aakar Patel, academics Uma Chakravarty, Nivedita Menon, Sayeda Hameed and Roop Rekha Verma, Sadhna Arya, theatre practitioners Maya Rao and Danish Husain, poets Amir Aziz, Jacinta Kerketta, Akhil Katyal, Sabika Abbas Naqvi and Nabiya Khan, student leaders Dhananjay, Gurmehar Kaur, activists Vasantha Kumari, Teesta Setalvad, Lalita Ramdas, Chayanika Shah, Navsharan Singh, and Madhu Bhushan.

Gulfisha's bail application has been unjustly pending in the Delhi High Court for almost three years, without a verdict. Despite the long incarceration and inordinate judicial delays, Gul has refused to surrender. On completing 5 years of this unjust incarceration, she writes in her recent letter - "I shall celebrate this day also to mark my survival in the most bizarre circumstances of struggle."

Like Gulfisha - Khalid Saifi, Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid, Meeran Haider, Athar Khan, Shifa ur Rehman, Shahdab Ahmed, Tasleem Ahmed, Tahir Hussain, Saleem Malik & Saleem Munna - all charged under UAPA in FIR 59/20 continue to be incarcerated under trumped-up charges. We stand in solidarity with the struggles of all political prisoners - academics, artists and activists incarcerated for their political dissent under UAPA. We demand the repeal of UAPA, a law that is being used to attack all voices of dissent and to punish those who stand up for constitutional and democratic rights.

Link to Instagram handle: https://www.instagram.com/freegulfisha/

Link to X (Twitter) handle: https://x.com/FreeGulfisha

Comments

The silencing of conscience: Ideological attacks on India’s judiciary and free thought

By Sunil Kumar* “Volunteers will pick up sticks to remove every obstacle that comes in the way of Sanatan and saints’ work.” — RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat (November 6, 2024, Chitrakoot) Eleven months later, on October 6, 2025, a man who threw a shoe inside the Supreme Court shouted, “India will not tolerate insults to Sanatan.” This incident was not an isolated act but a continuation of a pattern seen over the past decade—attacks on intellectuals, writers, activists, and journalists, sometimes in the name of institutions, sometimes by individual actors or organizations.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Citizens’ group to recall Justice Chagla’s alarm as India faces ‘undeclared' Emergency

By A Representative In a move likely to raise eyebrows among the powers-that-be, a voluntary organisation founded during the “dark days” of the Indira Gandhi -imposed Emergency has announced that it will hold a public conference in Ahmedabad to highlight what its office-bearers call today’s “undeclared Emergency.”

Celebrating 125 yr old legacy of healthcare work of missionaries

Vilas Shende, director, Mure Memorial Hospital By Moin Qazi* Central India has been one of the most fertile belts for several unique experiments undertaken by missionaries in the field of education and healthcare. The result is a network of several well-known schools, colleges and hospitals that have woven themselves into the social landscape of the region. They have also become a byword for quality and affordable services delivered to all sections of the society. These institutions are characterised by committed and compassionate staff driven by the selfless pursuit of improving the well-being of society. This is the reason why the region has nursed and nurtured so many eminent people who occupy high positions in varied fields across the country as well as beyond. One of the fruits of this legacy is a more than century old iconic hospital that nestles in the heart of Nagpur city. Named as Mure Memorial Hospital after a British warrior who lost his life in a war while defending his cou...

New RTI draft rules inspired by citizen-unfriendly, overtly bureaucratic approach

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Department of Personnel and Training , Government of India has invited comments on a new set of Draft Rules (available in English only) to implement The Right to Information Act, 2005 . The RTI Rules were last amended in 2012 after a long period of consultation with various stakeholders. The Government’s move to put the draft RTI Rules out for people’s comments and suggestions for change is a welcome continuation of the tradition of public consultation. Positive aspects of the Draft RTI Rules While 60-65% of the Draft RTI Rules repeat the content of the 2012 RTI Rules, some new aspects deserve appreciation as they clarify the manner of implementation of key provisions of the RTI Act. These are: Provisions for dealing with non-compliance of the orders and directives of the Central Information Commission (CIC) by public authorities- this was missing in the 2012 RTI Rules. Non-compliance is increasingly becoming a major problem- two of my non-compliance cases are...

World Bank arm accused of hiding crucial report on Gujarat’s Tata Mundra power project

By A Representative The Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) has accused the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), the accountability arm of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of concealing crucial evidence related to the Tata Mundra coal power project in Gujarat during the period when the case was being heard in U.S. courts. In a press statement released on October 10, 2025, CFA said that the CAO’s final monitoring report, which was completed in 2019 but released only in September 2025, revealed that IFC had failed to take remedial action for years, even as environmental and livelihood harms to local communities worsened.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Search This Blog