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When T Aneesa stepped onto a busy road in Palakkad to pray, she was not trying to make a point about religion. She was trying to be seen.
For months, the 50-year-old woman says she had been writing letters and visiting police stations over a property dispute with her late husband’s family, waiting for responses that never came. On January 28, she chose to make her protest visible. Wearing a white burqa, Aneesa performed namaz on the road as vehicles slowed and passed around her.
By evening, the video had travelled far beyond Palakkad. The visuals circulated widely online, but not for the reasons she intended. Instead, her public prayer was pulled out of context and read through a very different lens.
Social media posts warned of a “dangerous future for Kerala”, and called Aneesa a “religious extremist”. Several posts attracted sexually explicit abuse, and the reason Aneesa said she had taken to the street began to disappear.
“All I have by my side now is god,” she told TNM over the phone. “Had I been a Hindu or Christian, I would have lit a lamp or candles on the road.”
Aneesa is a native of Kollengode in Palakkad district. She was married at 13 and moved to Coimbatore with her husband Thajudheen, an autorickshaw driver. The couple had two daughters and, she says, lived a quiet life until 2017, when Thajudheen was diagnosed with cancer. He died six months later.
After his death, Aneesa says she was left without a house, financial security, or support from her husband’s family. Meanwhile, Thajudheen’s family sold land, of which he was entitled to an equal share. His family, however, refused to pay Aneesa any part of it. She fought back by approaching the police, and writing to the Chief Minister, the Palakkad District Collector, and the district Superintendent of Police.
She said she was driven to helplessness when she received no response from the authorities. That is when she decided to take to the streets and perform namaz, wearing a white burqa.
Aneesa was taken into custody by the Palakkad town police for obstruction of traffic. No case was registered against her.
The video got national attention and with it, multiple interpretations. The Organiser, an English website widely recognised as the official mouthpiece of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), said that her actions were an “act of religious superiority” and indicative of radical Islam. The article also called offering namaz in unauthorised public locations a “provocative and strategic attempt to evade the law while advancing a convenient narrative as a pre-planned strategy”.
Many X (formerly Twitter) handles shared the video with the caption, “The dangerous mindset is spreading in Kerala too.” These further attracted hateful comments, such as, “This is not faith, it's about testing limits and asserting dominance. Many social media handles commented, many will follow this later.”
But Aneesa denied any such intentions behind the protest, insisting that it was only a personal issue that she desperately wanted to draw authorities’ attention to.
The property dispute
Aneesa’s husband Thajudheen, who was an autorikshaw driver in Coimbatore, had four siblings. After their father's death, the siblings sold 158 cents of land that belonged to their father without informing Thajudheen. At the time, Thajudheen was undergoing cancer treatment, and so he and Aneesa chose not to escalate the issue.
After Thajudheen's death, his siblings sold another piece of land – eight cents – that belonged to his late father, again without informing Aneesa.
Muslim personal law entitles a widow to 25% of her late husband’s property if the couple had no children, and 12.5% if they do.
When Aneesa and her brother Abdul Hakkim inquired about the sale, the siblings told them that Aneesa’s share had been paid in court. “It was only later that we realised they cannot pay our money in court,” Abdul Hakkim said.
Later, Aneesa submitted a complaint to the Chief Minister, the Palakkad district Collector, and the Superintendent of Police.
Then on December 3, the Kollengode police instructed them to present their grievance at the Palakkad District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), who in turn advised Aneesa to approach the civil court.
Generally, such cases are filed in the civil court that has jurisdiction over the area where the disputed property is situated. But Abdul Hakkim and Aneesa said they could not afford an advocate to proceed through the court.
Later, on advice of the police, they went to the Chittur DLSA, where Thajudheen’s family told officers that they were willing to pay Aneesa Rs 3.5 lakh. She turned down this offer, alleging that it was unjust.
“They sold the land for around Rs 35,000 per cent, but offered Aneesa only Rs 7,000 per cent. She deserves around Rs 15 lakh, but they are not ready to give an amount anywhere close to that figure. So, she refused,” Abul Hakkim said.
It was at this point that Aneesa decided to stage a public protest, leading to her performing namaz on the road on January 28. “We submitted multiple complaints, but nothing happened. She has studied only till class 3, and has no money, so she chose to protest,” Abdul Hakkim said.
Abdul Hakkim added that they will approach an advocate soon to approach the courts in the matter.