Usama Zakir: The man who is behind a reading revolution at Shaheen Bagh

In two weeks, Zakir and his friends have managed to affect the lives of 500 children and young adults

In December last year, Ladeeda Farzana, Ayesha Renna and two other women became national symbols of courage. When, Shaheen Abdulla, their male friend and co-student at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), was dragged out on to the road and beaten by foul-mouthed policemen, the women threw themselves on to Abdulla, shielding him from the brutal attack. The hijab-clad young women were simply defending their friend but for Usama Zakir, a 30-year-old research scholar and lecturer at Jamia’s department of English, they were creating history. “These young women broke existing gender binaries in ways that go beyond just their actions. They