“I Will Stand & Fight Again, Against What is Wrong & For What is Right, For Women Everywhere’: Bilkis Bano

I will stand and fight again, against what is wrong and for what is right,” said Bilkis Bano, a 2002 mass rape survivor, who has moved the Supreme Court challenging the remission and release of 11 convicts, who gang-raped her and killed her family members, including her three-old daughter, in 2002.

In a pithy but strong statement, issued on Thursday, December 1, 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 loss of hope.”

“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,” she added.

Bilkis Bano was a mere 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped. Fourteen of her family members including her young daughter were killed in the brutal attack in Gujarat’s Dahod district. At the crossroads of Randhikpur and Sanjeli while she and her extended family tries to flee the orchestrated attack, they were laid upon and mass atrocities were committed.

In both her separate petitions, she has challenged the premature release of the convicts by the Gujarat government on August 15, saying it has “shaken the conscience of society”.

Immediately after the convicts were released, ironically on and after India’s 75th Independence Day on August 15, 2022, Justice U.D. Salvi, the former Bombay high court judge who had convicted them, condemned the move, saying it ‘has set a very bad precedent’.

The convicts, in fact, received a ‘heroic welcome’ amidst fanfare, triggering controversy.

The 11 convicts who were granted premature release are Jaswantbhai Nai, Govindbhai Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radhesham Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt, and Ramesh Chandana. The media, especially the Indian Express, had reported the over 1,000 days of parole granted to several of the convicts while serving sentence and how even one of them was booked for allegedly misconduct with women, while on parole.

Read the full statement by Bilkis Bano below.

Bilkis Yakub Rasool’s Statement

December 1, 2022

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 loss of hope.

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. And how much it has helped rekindle my faith in humanity, renewed my courage and allowed me to believe yet again in the idea of justice.

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.

 -Bilkis Bano, Dec 1, 2022