Raeesa Ansari, a fruit-seller, went viral and made headlines all over social media last week. In a video that features her, she is seen speaking fluent English and protesting the repeated lockdowns in Indore.
Raeesa Ansari who sells fruits now is a former research scholar of the Devi Ahilya University in the city of Indore. Previously, Raeesa had been offered to work on a research project in the country of Belgium while she was pursuing her Ph.D. She was speaking to Jagran and revealed that she was on a CSIR research fellowship at the IISER in the city of Kolkata. She told,
“A senior of mine from the university was working on the project from Belgium. Their research head offered me to join them and sent an offer letter. I required the permission of my Ph.D. guide to accepting the offer, however, he refused to sign the document. Once I lost the opportunity to go to Belgium for the research project, I lost all hope and returned from Kolkata.”
25 Members In Family
The family of Raeesa has 25 members including her parents, three brothers, and eight children. She currently lives in Indore’s Nehru Nagar. She revealed that she was forced to leave her career after her brothers’ wives left them when their children were young and hence decided to take care of them.
In the video that went viral on social media, she complained to the authorities decided to impose restrictions in the city given the rise in the number of cases of COVID-19. She complained that the repeated curbs have left fruit and vegetable sellers penniless.
“At times, one side of the market is closed and on others, the second one is shut by the administration and there are hardly any buyers. What we are supposed to feed our families. The first question is who will give the job to me. The perception that coronavirus is being generated from Muslims has become common now. Because my name is Raeesa Ansari, no college or research institution is willing to give me a job.”
Source: India Times
