Indian student organization
Fraternity Movement is an indian student-youth party in India working for strengthening democracy, social justice and fraternity.[1][2] It is a growing student organization in many regions of India especially in West Bengal, Kerala and Delhi.[3]
The slogan of the movement is 'Democracy, Social Justice and Fraternity'.[4]
In 2017, Fraternity made its foray into politics by winning a seat in the college students council of the Maharaja's College in Ernakulam.[5] Fraternity Movement candidate Afreen Fatima won the student union elections of Jawaharlal Nehru University as a councillor in 2019.[6][7]
During the Anti-Citizenship protests that sparked India in December 2019, Fraternity Movement blocked the Calicut international airport.[8] Several members of Fraternity Movement, were jailed for their involvement in the protests.[9]
History
Fraternity Movement was launched on 30 April 2017 at a student-youth convention held at Ambedkar Bhawan, New Delhi. Aligarh Muslim University Student Leader Ansar Aboobaker was elected as the first president.[10] Since its formation, the organisation has grown in many states including Kerala,[11] West Bengal,[12] Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Following the court verdict of Babri Masjid - Ram Janmbhoomi dispute, Fraternity Movement criticised the judgement stating Supreme Court has failed to uphold justice.[13]
Prominent leaders
Afreen Fatima
Afreen Fatima is a student leader and National Secretary of Fraternity Movement. She is a prominent Muslim voice against the anti-Muslim policies of the Indian government. She studied MA in linguistics at JNU, where she also served as the elected councillor in JNU students' union 2019-20 from the school of Language, Literature and Cultural Studie - BAPSA alliance,[14]imination and identity assertion.[15] Formerly, she has been the elected president of Women's College Students' Union at the Aligarh Muslim University for the session 2018-19.[16] She is known to have actively participated in the anti-CAA protests that started in 2019.[17] She faced several days long media trial after a small part of her speech was tweeted by BJP's national spokesman Sambit Patra.[18]
Aysha Renna
Aysha Renna is a Muslim Student Activist and National Secretary of Fraternity Movement. A Post Graduate in History from Jamia Millia Islamia, she is one of the leading voices of the Citizenship Amendment Act Protests.[19] She along with Ladeeda Farzana were called 'Sheroes of Jamia' by Barkha Dutt in an interview.[20] Her video of confronting baton wielding police officers to save her friend during a protest went viral.[21] She has travelled to all major Indian cities to address the Shaheen Bagh protest sites against Citizenship Amendment Act passed by the Indian government in 2019.[22] In January 2021, she was invited to speak at the Elgar Parishad along with Arundhati Roy, Kannan Gopinathan and Sharjeel Usmani.[23]
