Muslim woman battles right-wing pushback to reclaim village sarpanch post

Talking to The Federal, Afrozbani Sipai said, “I had mistakenly written my date of birth as January 7, 2005 and that became an issue when the Collector was making a list of all the winning sarpanches of Mehsana to be felicitated by the Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel in an event. However, the office of the taluka development officer (TDO) did not inform me and directly initiated the disqualification process. As per the rules, the TDO is supposed to send a notice in case of any discrepancy in the nominee or winner’s form.”

Afrozbanu learned of her disqualification only after it had been officially declared.

Not giving up

Further, Afrozbanu shared that her father sought her correct birth certificate that showed her birth date as September 3, 2003, which made her 22 years old at the time of the poll. "But the civic body by then had handed over the disqualification notice to us by on July 28 and Hirenbhai Chaudhary, the runner up of the gram panchayat election was declared the sarpanch of Gilosan. I was told nothing could be done now."

Afrozbanu, however, did not want to give up without a fight. "That’s when I decided to file the legal case,” she said.

Justice delivered

She filed a case in the Gujarat High Court challenging the MMC’s order in August 2025. On October 19 this year, the High Court quashed the civic body’s decision and reinstated Afrozbanu as the sarpanch of Gilosan.

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Notably, Justice Niral R Mehta quashed the MMC order on the ground that no notice was issued to Afrozbanu Sipai by the civic body before taking action against her.

The judgement said that the respondent could not dispute the fact that no notice was issued to Afrozbanu prior to the cancellation of the birth certificate. “Under the circumstances, the impugned order / communication is quashed and set aside, without going into the merits of the matter. However, it is open for the respondent authority to initiate fresh proceedings against the petitioner for the purpose of cancellation of the birth certificate in accordance with law and after following the principle of natural justice,” read the judgement.

Afrozbanu’s family, who originally hail from Mahisagar district, had migrated to Gilosan village, Mehsana in 2002, after escaping an attack on their home in the communal riots in February the same year.

Night of terror

In a chat with The Federal, Afrozbanu’s father, Abbasbhai Sipai, recounted the harrowing experiences of the Godhra riots that devastated their family and turned their lives upside down.

He said, “I will never forget that night. It was just my mother, my wife and I living in Mahisagar city. I used to work in a carpenter’s shop. Life was not great but we were managing. Then one night we lost everything – my mother, my brother and our home. My home was around 65 kilometres from Godhra railway station where it had all begun. My brother and his family used to live just beside my home. At around 1 am on February 27, 2002, my wife suddenly woke up due to a loud noise. We looked out of the window and saw a mob with all kinds of weapons and burning torches in their hands, running towards our home.”

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“Before we could do anything, some ten or fifteen men broke into our house and dragged my mother out. That was the last time I saw her. One of them charged at my wife with a sword and I threw myself before her and got injured. The crowd moved on and left me thinking I was dead. I don’t remember when I was brought to the Godhra relief camp. But I found my wife in the camp. She was injured and during her treatment, we found out that she was pregnant. I also learnt that my mother, brother, his wife and son were also killed,” he said adding that it was difficult to completely erase all those memories even after all these years.

Move to Gilosan

Gilosan, a village with around 1,024 families had remained unaffected in the riots. Abbasbhai Sipai and his wife moved to Gilosan in April 2002 to live with their relatives.

As Abbas Sipai and his wife began to build a life from scratch, Afrozbanu was born in September 2003 and then her brother in 2005. Abbasbhai began to work as a daily wage labourer.

Life was getting back on track for the Sipai family, when Afrozbanu, who aspired to be a politician, filed her nomination for the local polls. The problems began the day she filed her nomination for the local polls.

“Afrozbanu has been teaching school children and is quite popular amongst the students and their families. Although some men of a local right wing outfit Hindu Sena began to harass her after she filed her nomination, she won by 300 votes,” said Afrozbanu’s lawyer Shakeel Qureshi.

Fighting back

Afrozbanu recollected how her family was constantly harassed since she filed the form. But she stuck to her goal.

“Once my father was threatened by one of the Hindu Sena men, who told him if I don’t take back my nomination, my family shall witness 2002 like fate again. Despite complaints, local police has not arrested anyone until now. This is exactly why I want to be in a politician, so that I can ensure that my family, or any other Muslim family never has to face any such torment again,” she said with determination.

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Despite the high court’s order on October 19, Hirenbhai Chaudhary, who was declared sarpanch, vacated the office only on November 3 this year, only after the local police asked him to vacate the gram panchayat building.

Hindus upset

While Chaudhary refused to comment, his cousin and a member of Hindu Sena Jignesh Chaudhary told The Federal, “Gilosan used to be a village of Hindus with a handful of Muslim families, who lived on the outskirts and did not participate in village affairs. Then, the Sipais and three other Muslim families from Godhra shifted here in 2002 and after them some other Muslim families also arrived from other districts. Now, we have around 100 Muslim families in Gilosan. This is not safe for our village. Also, added to all this, we have to now accept a Muslim sarpanch. We are worried for the safety of Hindus of Gilosan.”

Meanwhile, the police inspector of Gilosan police station also refused to comment on why no action was taken despite Afroz’s repeated complaints.

Himanshu Solanki, the Superintendent of Police of Mehsana said, “I was told that the candidate with second highest vote was declared the sarpanch (Hirenbhai Chaudhary) when the winner’s (Afroz) nominations were disqualified. But now that the court has ordered to reinstate Afroz Sipai, Chaudhary was delaying in vacating the gram panchayat office. The local police have been asked to look into the matter and ensure that she gets her office as the village sarpanch.. However, I’m not aware of any other form of harassment faced by the sarpanch or her family.”