Shehla Rashid

Shehla Rashid

Shehla Rashid Shora is an Indian human rights student activist. She was vice-president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union in 2015–16. She rose to prominence whilst leading the student agitation calling for the release of Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and others who were arrested on charges of sedition.

About Shehla Rashid in brief

Summary Shehla RashidShehla Rashid Shora is an Indian human rights student activist. She was vice-president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union in 2015–16. She rose to prominence whilst leading the student agitation calling for the release of Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and others who were arrested on charges of sedition in JNU. On 16 February 2019 Shora posted a tweet stating that a group of Kashmiri girls were trapped in a hostel in Dehra Dun by a mob demanding their expulsion. The Uttarakhand police subsequently filed a first information report against her for disrupting public tranquility and intent to provoke breach of peace by spreading rumours. She had briefly joined the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement political party, founded by Shah Faesal on 17 March 2019.

She is vocal about the human rights situation in Kashmir, particularly highlighting the plight of minors held in custody awaiting trial, and has been active since 2010 after organising a youth leadership programme in Kashmir. She played a leading role in organising the ‘Occupy UGC movement’ and the decision to protest the withdrawal of non-NET fellowship. In October 2015, she led a protest against the University Grants Commission decision to cut student scholarships for MPhil and PhD students except for those that passed the ‘national eligibility test’ She was the first Kashmiri woman to win a student union election and the highest polled candidate of that year. She said that if ideas are suppressed, they would resurface in ‘undesirable ways’