On July 18, 2004, 12 Manipuri mothers threw off their clothes before Imphal’s historic Kangla Fort against the AFSPA that allowed army men to rape and kill Thangjam Manorama eight days before.
Assam Rifles men picked up Manorama from home claiming that she was member of a banned militant group. The next morning, her bullet-riddled body was found in a field. Autopsy report revealed semen marks on her skirt, confirming rape.
The daring act of the mothers, locally called Imas, brought the world’s attention on Army’s atrocities in the state with AFSPA as a shield.
“We protested naked to show the anger of mothers of Manipur,” 71-year-old Soibam Momon Leima, one of the protesting Manipuri moms that day, said. “(That day) we carried placards saying ‘Indian Army rape us’. We are yet to get justice.” The mothers rallied around human rights activist Irom Sharmila Chanu, taking her struggle to the masses by holding relay fasts since 2008 in her support. They also formed Sharmila Kaba Apunba Lup(SAKAL) to spread her message.
“Manorama is our daughter. Sharmila is also our daughter. Women, mothers and daughters, have sacrificed the most in decades of injustice in Manipur. Sharmila has done supreme sacrifice and it is because of her that the violations of AFSPA in Manipur is an issue the whole world knows about,” Soibam Momon said.
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