KOZHIKODE: The disbanding of the Haritha state committee has come three days before its ninth anniversary. It was on September 11, 2012 Haritha was formed at a hotel here as the girl’s wing of Muslim Students Federation (MSF). Shafeena Kannur was the first state president, Fathima Thahiliya state general secretary and V R Parvathy Raj state treasurer.
The unprecedented participation of girl students in the MSF state conference of 2011 triggered the birth of Haritha. Around 1,500 girls had registered online for the conference including from Vimala College, Thrissur; Victoria College, Palakkad and Unity Women’s College, Manjeri, where MSF had no units.
“Haritha has brought in a major change to the campus politics involving girls. Till then, girls had mostly been confined to the posts of vice-chairperson and joint secretary in college unions, generally.
Haritha has rewritten this by successfully electing girls to the posts of chairpersons, general secretary and general captain in many college unions. It had representatives in the senate body of Calicut and Kannur universities as well,” said Najma Thabsheera T, the state general secretary of the now disbanded committee. Haritha’s Mina Farzana became the first woman union chairperson of the 73-year-old Farook College, Kozhikode and Riswana Shirin K M the first MSF unit president of the same college.
Haritha’s footsteps emboldened its parent party IUML also in local body polls elections. In the 2020 LSG elections, many Haritha leaders contested on the party ticket and a few of them got elected as well. Najma Thabsheera (Perinthalmanna block panchayat), Anshitha (Meladi block panchayat) and Shaheeda Rashid (Pullur-Periya grama panchayat, Kasaragod) are among those elected.
“Haritha has made a big impact on our campuses. It has a decisive role to play in upholding creative and clean politics on campuses and contributing to women empowerment,” said Riswana Shirin, Haritha Kozhikode district president.