Thursday, November 7News and updates from Kashmir

University authorities threaten to cancel Muslim student activist Safoora Zargar’s Admission

On Wednesday, student activist and research scholar Safoora Zargar (29) took to Twitter and said that she was denied extension on her thesis submission.

Earlier today, Maktoob reported that the Department of Sociology in Jamia Millia Islamia was threatening to cancel her MPhil admission and that her application for an extension of thesis submission had been put on hold for over eight months.

Sharing her ordeal, in a series of tweet, Safoora said that since December 2021, she had been made to run from pillar to post for extensions that are easily given to other scholars in the university.

“I have faced severe abuse at the hands of my Supervisor and my department. While UGC has granted five consecutive Covid extensions I have been given only one,” she said.

She added that she was forced to apply for extension under women scholar category, only to be denied after months citing ‘unsatisfactory progress.’

Safoora said that her mails to the Registrar and the VC remained unanswered, which was in clear violation of the guidelines laid down by UGC and pointed to the malafide intentions of the Supervisor and the department.

She said that she will be taking all remedial action available to her.

“Time and again my writing has been censored and rejected for being ‘too political.’ What is it that scares them so much of educated Muslim women that they put every possible hurdle in our education? This is a clear attempt to gag, censor my work, and disrupt my education,” said the Muslim student activist.

Pertinently, Safoora was among the student activists arrested for protesting against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act in 2020. She was granted bail on the grounds of her pregnancy and the Covid-19 pandemic. During this time, Safoora faced a lot of online harrassment from the pre-establishment groups.

“Despite 3 waves of Covid, a pregnancy, severe state attack, jail time and severe Covid infections in the family, I completed my fieldwork. I submitted all my progress reports on time. But at the fag end of my thesis, I am being denied submission,” said Safoora on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Maktoob reported that Dr. Manisha Tripathy Pandey, Professor and Head of the Sociology department, which Safoora is a student of, said that all the due procedures were taken.

Pandey cancelled the call before any further enquiries were made about the status of admission.

Zargar began her MPhil in February 2019 and her thesis looks into ‘Socio-spatial segregation among Muslims in Delhi, A case study of Ghaffar Manzil Colony,’ as per Maktoob.

Pertinently Safoora Zargar was jailed from 10 April until 24 June 2020 in Delhi conspiracy case. The 29-year-old allegedly made an inflammatory speech on 23 February 2020.

Safoora who was pregnant when arrested was granted bail by the Delhi High Court at the fourth application on 23 June 2020, and she was released late on 24 June 2020.

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