‘Iron lady’ of Manipur, Irom Sharmila Gives Birth to Twin Girls

When the whole world was celebrating ‘Mother’s Day’ this Sunday, political and human rights activist better known as the ‘Iron lady' of Manipur, Irom Sharmila gave birth to twins at a private hospital in Bengaluru. The pictures of the twin girls were released recently.

It was a Caesarean delivery and both babies and the mother are doing fine. The doctors said, “It was a C-section delivery (Caesarean) because there were twin babies. The twin girls have been named Nix Shakhi and Autumn Tara. Both babies and the mother are doing well”.

In the year 2000, the 44-year-old also known as the ‘Iron Lady' of Manipur, went on a hunger strike demanding the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act or AFSPA from Manipur in Northeast India.

On August 2016, after 16 years Irom Sharmila broke her hunger strike that is the world’s longest hunger strike. She then said that she wanted to become the Chief Minister of Manipur so that she could repeal the contentious AFSPA.

The decision of Irom Sharmila also had enraged a section of the people, who had unleashed a series of criticism on her. Undeterred, she formed a new political party, the PRJA or Peoples Resurgence and Justice Alliance and held strategy sessions with several political leaders including Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal.

In the year 2017 Irom Sharmila contested in the state elections of Manipur from Thoubal assembly constituency, contesting against three-time Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh. She managed to get only 90 out of 27,271 votes in the election.

After her defeat, she said she would quit active politics for the time being and travel south of India to calm her mind. Earlier this year, when she was asked if she could contest in the national elections. Irom Sharmila clearly said that politics was not her ‘cup of tea’.  

In the year 2017, Sharmila married her ardent follower and longtime partner Desmond Coutinho, a British citizen.