SFI AMU Statement: Nightfall and Rebellion – AMU’s Women Students Rise Against Patriarchal Neglect

The electricity failed at 1 in the night—not an anomaly, but part of a pattern. In Abdullah Hall, where 1,500 women students live, the power cuts are frequent and prolonged, yet the administration’s response is always the same: silence. Generators power the dining hall and reading room, but the hostel rooms—where students sleep, study, survive—are left to swelter in the dark. The disparity is deliberate. It reflects a hierarchy of needs dictated by patriarchal neglect: communal spaces matter; women’s bodily comfort does not.

By morning, the rage erupted. Sleep-deprived and gasping for air, the students marched to the main gate, banging plates and spoons—a symphony of dissent against an institution that treats their suffering as routine. Some carried umbrellas against the sun; one clutched a handheld fan like a weapon. Five students fainted from heat exhaustion. Exam candidates vomited outside the gates, their parents hauling them away, their education literally collapsing under institutional apathy. The scene was a grotesque tableau of gendered neglect: young women’s bodies breaking down, while male proctors and security personnel loomed, not as protectors, but as enforcers of the status quo.

When Vice Chancellor Prof. Naima Khatoon arrived, she did not meet them at the gate. She demanded they come to her—inside the Provost’s office, a space of bureaucratic remove. Her car idled at a distance, a metaphor for the administration’s refusal to truly approach its students. When pressed, she cited “government procedures,” as if red tape justified denying women basic infrastructure. The students, unsurprisingly, were unmoved. They blockaded her exit, forcing her to flee through a back gate—an apt symbol for an administration that prefers escape over accountability.

But the protest was never just about electricity. It was about the rot festering beneath:

• Water scarcity, even as underground pipes near the canteen hemorrhaged thousands of liters daily—wastage the administration ignored.
• Filth and hunger: Dustbins overflowed for days, reeking of decay; meals were inedible. When students previously raised these issues with the Dean, they were met with empty assurances.
• Violence, both structural and physical: A student’s hand was mangled by security guards as she tried to lock the gate. Another accused guards of throat-grabbing—an act of intimidation so visceral, she later showed bloodstains on her pants (possibly from scrapes or a fall during the struggle). The blood was proof, not of a single assault, but of the institution’s willingness to brutalize rather than listen.

And then, the ultimate patriarchal threat: A proctorial team member filmed protesting students, warning of legal repercussions. The subtext? Your voices are criminal.

The System Must Answer

AMU’s administration operates on a simple logic: women’s distress is tolerable until it disrupts the institution’s facade of order. The electricity cuts at night because no one in power stays in those suffocating rooms. The pipes leak because no one in power drinks that rationed water. The threats escalate because dissent—especially from women—must be crushed before it spreads.

The students’ revolt, with its spoons and bloodied clothes, is more than a demand for fans and functioning lights. It’s a refusal to be erased. The 1 AM blackout was a technical failure, but the real darkness is the administration’s refusal to see these women as fully human.

Our Demands:

1. Immediate resolution of electricity and water crises in women’s hostels, with 24/7 generator supply to all rooms.
2. Punishment for security personnel responsible for violent misconduct.
3. Transparent inquiry into the proctorial team’s threats and intimidation tactics.
4. Urgent infrastructure repairs, including fixing leaking pipes and ensuring hygienic living conditions.

The SFI AMU stands in unwavering solidarity with the women students of Abdullah Hall. Their fight is our fight. We call upon all progressive forces within and outside AMU to rally behind them.

The administration wants silence. We answer with resistance.

In solidarity,
Students’ Federation of India (SFI)
AMU Unit