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Brave Girl Fighting For Her Nose - By- Tarannum Manjul Live for today, for yesterday has gone and tomorrow still has to come. With this motto in life, this 24 year old young journalist gets going everyday. A through bred Delhite, this graduate in English honours (and several diplomas) went onto to become a journalist working for a leading National daily in Lucknow, (Uttar Pradesh) from the past 4 years. A true gemini to the soul, she loves meeting people and issues related to the underprivileged, women and children touch her the most. a budding development journalist, Tarannum loves writing about the feat achieved by her key areas, and can go anywhere to do that, with nothing stopping her.

Is refusing an illicit relationship with you father-in-law a sin? Certainly not, you would say. But for Shilpi, this was her biggest sin and she paid a price for her refusal. The price - HER NOSE. Yet, this brave girl continues to fight for justice and is trying to get her in-laws punished with the help of her friends from Mahila Samakhya, UP.

A native of Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh, 19-year old Shilpi was married two years ago in Hardoi amongst her relation. Her husband was working in Pune, while Shilpi was living with her father-in-law and elder brother-in-law and his wife. All was fine until Shilpi's father in law decided to have physical relations with her. He often used to hint her, which she preferred to ignore, and one day, he tried to molest her. Shilpi, who is a member of the kishori sangh of Mahila Samakhya, fought back and refused to give in to his demands. She even informed her parents about the entire incident and told them that she would be back home in a day or two.

This angered her father-in-law, who was already feeling hurt after Shilpi's refusal. He caught hold of Shilpi alongwith other in-laws and shouted, 'Apne ko bahut khubsurat samajhti hai kya' (Do you think you are very beautiful). Before Shilpi could say anything, they chopped off her nose. Instead of getting any medical treatment for her, they threw Shilpi out of the house. A hurt and shocked Shilpi was helped by her neighbours and sent to her parental home in Sitapur in December 2003. Back home, Shilpi, who was in severe pain, decided to fight back and alongwith her friends from Mahila Samakhya, managed to get an FIR registered against her in-laws in the local police station with great difficulty.

Courage can well be her second name, and Shilpi was recently felicitated at the Kishori Utsav organized by Mahila Samakhya at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Tears rolled down her eyes as she revealed her story to MP and social activist Shabana Azmi. “Mujhmein ab ladne ki shakti nahin rahi didi,” she told Shabana, who hugged her to console her, to which Shabana replied, “Shilpi hum sab tumhare saath hain.” Later, Shilpi said, “I just want to get all the crooks punished. This may not give me my nose back, but atleast my respect would.” Richa Singh, the coordinator of MS Sitapur said, “We managed to get the accused arrested yet now they are out on bail.

They keep threatening Shilpi but she refuses to budge.” Dr Manju Agrawal, State Programme Director of Mahila Samakhya Uttar Pradesh, “We are not felicitating Shilpi because she has been traumatized. We have felicitated her because she has shown immense courage to stand for her rights and also fight the battle for injustice.” (Shilpi needs financial help to get her nose restructured and also to fight her case. Anyone interested in helping her can donate money.

The writer can be reached at honeymanjul@rediffmail.com or write to, info@mahilsasamakhya.org. All donations would be tax exempted.

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