In 2021, the UK lost a powerful anti-apartheid warrior | Racial discrimination

As 2021 ends and we reflect on last year’s disasters and catastrophes, many of us remember those we have lost. In the United Kingdom, those taking part in the fight against apartheid are mourning the loss of a loved one earlier this year. Anwar Ditta |.

“Through your life and the lives of your children, you are eternal,” wrote Irish Republican rebel rebel Bobby Sands in his 1980s poem to Ditta. These words apply well to Ditta’s legacy. His struggles, convictions, and steadfast pursuit of justice have made him one of the key figures in the modern-day war against apartheid and government oppression in the UK.

Ditta became known around the world as a “warrior” in the war against apartheid that the Office Office did to him and his family in the 1970s and 1980s. expulsion, exposure to state oppression, as well as those who oppose global oppression, even reaching an audience at the Women’s World Congress in Prague.

Born in Birmingham, England in 1953, Ditta spent her early years in Rochdale and her entire childhood in Pakistan. There, at the age of 14, he married Shuja Ud Din and had three children by them: Kamran, Imran and Saima.

In 1975, after her husband moved to the UK, Ditta joined him. Lacking proper travel documents, Ditta was forced to leave her children in Pakistan. When she asked them to take her to the UK, the Home Office became very angry and always prevented the family reunion.

By 1979, officials told the couple that they were “not satisfied that Kamran, Imran and Saima were related to Anwar Sultana Ditta and Shuja Ud Din as they claimed”. From the Home Office denying that the children were hers, to the fact that she was his daughter-in-law, to the suspicion that she lived in Pakistan, Ditta was given the worst excuses for refusing to reunite the family.

It can take up to six years of continuous opposition, gathering evidence, appealing, and persuading Ditta and her husband before seeing their three children. However, this was made possible by the public campaign Ditta launched to bring her children home.

His efforts began on the day he stood up, in front of a crowd gathered at a rally to protest the expulsion from the Longsight Library in South Manchester in 1979, and he spoke of his family’s support at the hands of the Home Office.

He was told to go to the meeting tired of all the legal means available to him. Ditta had never spoken at a public ceremony, and recently described how her husband pulls kameez, telling her to “sit down” and “stop talking”. But he went on to explain his position, establishing the foundations of the Anwar Ditta Defense Committee (ADDC).

The organization acted as a rainbow alliance formed by various regions – left-wing activists, businessmen, anti-apartheid groups, Indian Workers’ Association, Asian Youth Movements (AYMs) and many others – who responded to Ditta’s call. combating UK racist practices. It became more than just his personal story.

It was based on the ideas of a generation struggling with far-reaching, extreme right-wing, anti-refugee policies, and oppressive government systems – issues that continue to plague the UK at the moment.

Ditta did not give up because she had to endure many years of unrelenting hardship while working to support her children in the midst of poverty, exacerbated by rising debt. He often cites the cooperation of many people and groups – especially AYMs – as his source of unlimited power.

In the end, the strong and widespread resistance he made during his campaign, was what made him successful. In April 1981, the couple were reunited.

Throughout her struggle, all adversity was against Ditta. She was a poor, Asian, Muslim woman. He had no working capacity, and no higher education than eight years. They came from groups of people that the government expects to be able to oppress without pushing. The Home Office mocked Ditta and her entire family, accusing them of any lies and deceptions they might think, all in the name of expanding Britain’s borders. And yet, he persevered and won.

The Ditta struggle had meaning beyond the UK Asian group. Sands, who was arrested for his actions by the Irish Republican Army and who went on hunger strike until his death in protest of the British government’s refusal to accept Irish Republican prisoners as political prisoners, described the solidarity felt by people like him in his war. these words:

“In the face of violence and discrimination

Let’s put it together. There is faith

Because you are with us and we shed blood with you. “

Ditta’s work also had a profound effect on author Tariq Mehmood. In 1981, amid growing hostility toward immigrants and people of Britain’s right-wing ethnic group, Mehmood was a member of an anti-fascist movement that was preparing to oppose the fascist march. He, along with 11 other members known as Bradford 12, was arrested and charged with “terrorism”. Ditta responded to their case and supported them until their release.

“When all the doors of justice are closed to you, what can you do, but protest against this injustice and turn to the people for help. This is what Anwar did, and in that she turned into a young mother, an invincible giant,” Mehmood told me. “He is a hero whose commitment to the anti-apartheid movement is unparalleled and should be respected.”

This is what Ditta stands for, and no doubt will continue to do, as people read about her well-known story and the successful anti-apartheid campaign, the British border government. Instead, it is more important than ever to persevere in the battle of Ditta.

Indeed, today, as we see the development of the laws that were enacted at the time Ditta wanted to bring her children to the UK, we need to consider what she has achieved and why we need to form a major alliance. gathered together, to fight against anti-refugee and anti-immigration policies.

As Ditta, herself, explained: “I tell you what immigration laws mean — black children are X-rayed at the airport to confirm their age. Black women have been subjected to ‘virginity’ tests by incoming and outgoing adults as well as every black person who is being interrogated by tradition. ”

Ditta, unfortunately, also had to face a permanent crisis of immigration management in the UK. Separation from her children, who had long been away from their parents – the last of whom was three years old when Ditta left Pakistan – disrupted their relationship. “I proved to be my children to the government, to immigration officials, all over the world. But I could not assure my three children that I loved them,” said Ditta sadly almost 20 years after the war. That pain did not leave her.

Borders, and the ways in which countries force them, are always violent. Here. It destroys families. They cause physical and emotional harm to those who follow them. The Ditta case was not the first to show partiality in such “authorities,” nor was it the last. This is what he repeated throughout his life, as he fought for the UK’s principles of immigration and the protection of countless displaced persons.

“Mother just wanted to share what she knew and try to help as many people as possible. If anyone turned to her for help, she would never turn them down,” said Ditta’s youngest daughter, Hamera, who was born in the UK.

He told me that his mother was his hero, and he had a “real spirit of war”, which means he “did not give up”. “One thing about a woman is that she had a lot of love in her and wanted to share with as many people as possible,” she added.

Coming from a British prison, Sands also felt Ditta’s love. He wrote that we must continue to resist in the face of oppression “Because love always overcomes hatred”. Not true love, known for its goodness, far from pain and life. True love, lasting, strong, built as a result of struggle, and inspired by the desire of the newly constructed people. It is a war-torn Ditta love that is eternal and we must remember.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Al Jazeera.