Who Is Sadaf Jafar? Face of Anti-CAA Protests Gets Congress Ticket For UP Polls

Sadaf Jafar has been selected by the Congress party as a candidate for the Vidhan Sabha election and will be contesting from the Lucknow(central) seat in the upcoming state election that will be held in February 2022.

Spearheading the campaigns for Congress throughout the country in previous elections, she has been leading the Uttar Pradesh election campaign with " Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon".

Who Is Sadaf Jafar?

Sadaf Jafar is a poet, social-political and human rights activist. She had been a school teacher for quite a long time teaching political science and history. Jafar has been vocal about being the survivor of domestic abuse and raising children as a single mother in her television interviews.

 Jafar made headlines in media during 2019 when she was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police on Parivartan Chowk of Lucknow while she hosting a Facebook live session showcasing the violent CAA(Citizenship Amendment Act) protest in the city. It was only during this protest that she was kicked in the stomach by a male cop which received heavy backlash on social media as well.

Throughout her live session, she was heard giving instructions to the protestors and media persons, to take care of them and save themselves from being hurt, as the rioters supposedly intruded amid ongoing protest. 

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Out of several people who were arrested on that particular day of the Anti-CAA protest, she was the only woman who was taken into custody by the police. She has constantly stood up for the cause of women. Those who was been silenced in their efforts for getting justice including acid attack survivors or student from Lucknow University whose results were withheld by state authorities for staging a protest and obstructing Yogi Adityanath's convoy in the state in 2017. 

Jafar is the vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's politics in the state. She participated  during the CAA protest in the state for which she was even arrested and had to undergo a time which she " target="_blank" rel="noopener">describes as "being in a concentration camp".

In an interview with Telegraph India, she said, "We are practically living in a police state."

Many political figureheads like Priyanka Gandhi stood for the atrocities that were meted to the protesters in the state during that time. Mira Nair urged the users on her social media profile to demand her release soon. 

Sadaf Jafar has also been part of Mira Nair’s BBC series A Suitable Boy, adapted from Vikram Seth's novel. Presently, she serves as the national coordinator of the All India Mahila Congress, the women's wing of the party. Previously, she has also served the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee as the spokesperson for the party.