Irom Sharmila, the iconic activist who has not eaten for 16 years in protest against alleged army atrocities in Manipur, will end her epic fast today.
This morning, she left, possibly for the last time, the prison hospital in which she spent years being force-fed through a plastic tube after being arrested for attempted suicide, which is a crime.
She will break her fast at a court, taking the first in a series of steps towards a new life that will include politics and marriage.
As she waited for her release, the 44-year-old’s brief comments to the media were a desperate cry for help.
“I am being seen as a strange woman. Why can’t people see me as an ordinary person? I am cut off from everyone,” she said.
In 2000, the death of 10 people in firing by security forces drove Sharmila to launch a hunger strike to push for the removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act or AFSPA that gives the army sweeping emergency powers to search, enter property and shoot on sight.
She now wants to contest the Manipur election next year as an independent candidate.
“People say politics is dirty but so is society,” Sharmila, dubbed the “Iron Lady of Manipur”, told reporters.
A message, perhaps, for those stunned by her July 26 announcement not just in her family but also among her supporters.
When she takes her first sips of juice today, her 84-year-old mother Shakhi Devi will not be there, which was interpreted by some as a sign that she is not completely on board with the big step.
Doctors say the activist might have to be on a liquid diet for the next few days.
“A person who has not eaten solid food for 16 years cannot start it suddenly. She has to start slowly and gradually in small quantities,” said a doctor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital.
The last time Irom Sharmila tasted freedom briefly, she had also spoken about her relationship with a man through letters. Desmond Coutinho, a Goa-based British citizen, began writing to Sharmila years ago and even met her. Sharmila has said that she wants to marry him.
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