New Delhi: A gang-rape victim from the Gujarat riots 2022, Bilkis Bano, said on Thursday that her decision to stand up again against the injustice she was served with was not easy for her.
In a statement, she said, "The decision to once again stand up and knock on the doors of justice was not easy for me. For a long time, after the men who destroyed my entire family and my life were released, I was simply numb. I was paralysed with shock and with fear for my children, my daughters, and above all, paralysed by the loss of hope."
The 11 rapists, who were convicted by the country's justice, were en masse released by the state government of Gujarat, citing that they served 14 years jail term and their behaviour inside bars was good.
Bano said, "I will stand and fight again against what is wrong and for what is right."
She has moved the Supreme Court challenging the state governments to release the 11 convicts, who were also charged with murdering seven members of her family.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five-month pregnant when she was gang-raped amid the chaos of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Her three-year-old daughter was also among those seven family members who got killed by the 11 criminals. The riots broke out after the Godhra train burning incident.
She had filed two separate petitions and challenged the premature release of the 11 convicts, who were released on August 15. In her plea, she said that the Gujarat government's move has "shaken the conscience of society", both nationally and internationally.
In her Thursday statement, Bano continued, "But, the spaces of my silence were filled with other voices; voices of support from different parts of the country that have given me hope in the face of unimaginable despair; and made me feel less alone in my pain. I cannot express in words what this support has meant to me."
"So, I will stand and fight again against what is wrong and for what is right. I do this today for myself, for my children, and for women everywhere", she said.