Irom Chanu Sharmila (born 14 March 1972),[1] also known as the "Iron Lady"[2] or "Mengoubi" ("the fair one")[3] is a civil rights activist, political activist, and poet from the Indian state of Manipur. On 2 November 2000,[4] she began a hunger strike which she ended on 9 August 2016, after 16 years of fasting. Having refused food and water for more than 500 weeks, she has been called "the world's longest hunger striker".[5] On International Women’s Day, 2014 she was voted the top woman icon of India by MSN Poll.[6][7]
In 2014 two parties asked her to stand in the national election, but she declined. She was then denied the right to vote as a person confined in jail cannot vote according to law.[8][9][10] On 19 August 2014 a court ordered her release from custody, subject to there being no other grounds for detention. She was re-arrested on 22 August 2014 on similar charges to those for which she was acquitted, and remanded in judicial custody for 15 days.[11] Amnesty International has declared her as a prisoner of conscience.
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