At 4 pm on October 27, near the central canteen, Nausheen Farooq went over her notes before addressing the media. Dressed in a yellow kurti, pyjamas and a head scarf, she muttered each point under her breath. Her friends surrounded her, talking, planning, while one adjusted her microphone.A few steps away, Haneena Bint Omar was walking from the Geography Department to the Political Science building, carrying a water gallon in each hand. Other students walked alongside, carrying more water and packets of food to be passed over the spiked boundary wall.For 18 days, as over a hundred students demanded the restoration of the Jamia Millia Islamia’s long-defunct students’ union amid a campus shutdown and prohibitory orders, Nausheen and Haneena were among those who helped organise and sustain the agitation. Another woman, Rida Naushad Khan, was among the seven students who went on hunger strike, fasting for 8 days.On Wednesday, the students secured a breakthrough, with the university setting a timeline for elections by July 2027.Neither woman had planned to lead a protest.“It was a sudden call,” Nausheen said. “We did not have much leadership then. Gradually, it became an organic protest. Everyone joined, and things got arranged.”Why they joined the fightNausheen, from Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is a second-year MA student in Disaster Management. She has a BSc from Madras University and chose Jamia because it is a central university.“When I came here, I saw there was no union,” she said. “Then I saw the problems students face: the alleged saffronisation of the university, the issues girls face… If there is a union, there will be a representative from our side. We won’t be having these problems.”Story continues below this adAmong the issues specific to women students, Nausheen said, was the 10 pm entry deadline. Other concerns included poor hygiene, rooms and washrooms in bad shape, and the quality of food. “When we approached the administration, they gave a very casual, lackadaisical reply,” she added. Nausheen Farooq (bottom right) holds up the photo of the university founder. (Source: Express Photo)Haneena, a third-year law student from Thrissur in Kerala, said alleged malpractice in admissions was among the issues that pushed her into the protest.“When you see something wrong happening, you have to raise your voice,” she said. “I was privileged to be brought up in a family where we were taught to ask questions and to speak up when something bad happens.”She named Ambedkar, Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh as her inspirations. “But for me, Deen comes first.”Story continues below this adThis was not their first protest. Haneena and Nausheen were part of the Cockroach Janta Party’s October 10 protest against irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision and were detained in Shalimar Bagh. They had gone, they said, to defend electoral democracy in India.The woman who took the hunger strike routeRida, a final-year MA student in Public Administration from Lucknow, was the only woman among the seven students who fasted for the restoration of the students’ union. She broke her eight-day fast to return to Lucknow after her mother fell ill.“For nearly two decades, Jamia has denied us our most fundamental democratic right: an elected students’ union. Sitting on a hunger strike was not a choice born of impulse but of necessity,” she said.A union, Rida said, is a bridge. “It gives marginalised voices, especially women, minorities and economically backward students, a fearless platform. It turns students from passive subjects into active stakeholders of their own campus.”Story continues below this adAn alumna of Aligarh Muslim University, Rida drew inspiration from the student movements at her alma mater and Jawaharlal Nehru University, as well as from students who refuse to bow to intimidation. She also named Fatima Sheikh, Savitribai Phule, Rosa Parks, and the women of Shaheen Bagh and the anti-CAA protests as inspirations.But her strongest support came from home. “Two women, unknown to the world, but very strong characters in my life: my mother and my younger sister, who stood beside me through this decision,” she said. Her father, she added, had encouraged her to sit on the hunger strike. Rida Naushad Khan, inside the Political Science building where the protesters had locked themselves in. (Source: Express Photo)After a pause, she added, “I am neither affiliated with nor bound by any political organisation. I have no political support, and no political motives or plans.”She described the university shutdown as “terrifying”, pointing to the heavy police deployment, the closure of the library and canteen, and attempts, she alleged, to make the women’s washroom and their separate sleeping space inaccessible.Story continues below this adDespite this, she said, “I have nothing against the administration. I have faith in the competent authorities that they will grant our demands.”On participation of women in protests, she was emphatic: “It is not just necessary, it is transformative. Women shatter the patriarchal lens of resistance… When one woman steps forward, she normalises political agency for every woman who follows.”“A struggle without women is half-baked freedom,” added Rida. “True democracy needs us at the centre.”