Gal Gadot hails Shaheen Bagh’s Bilkis Bano as one of her personal ‘Wonder Women’

Hollywood actor Gal Gadot, who essays the role of ‘Wonder Woman’ in the DC universe, has called Bilkis Bano, the octogenarian who became the face of the Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), one of her ‘Personal Wonder Women.’ Gal took to Instagram to share a post with 10 pictures of  young girls and women from all walks of life across the world, one of them being Bilkis Baano.

Gal captioned her Instagram post: “Saying farewell to 2020, with all my love to #MyPersonalWonderWomen. Some are those closest to me - my family, my friends - some are inspiring women I’ve loved discovering, and some are exceptional women I hope to meet in the future. Together, we can do wonders! Share your own wonder women with me.” Bilkis Bano's picture is the nighth photo in the actor's Instagram post.

Gal had also shared Bilkis’s photo in an Instagram story, with the caption: “This 82 year old activist fighting for women’s equality in India showed me it is never too late to fight for what you believe in.” However, she later deleted the post but retained the activist's photo in her post.

Some of the other women that she hailed on Instagram included her mother and sister, her friends, US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ahern, head of vaccine research at Pfizer Kathrin Jansen, and Romanian activist Sofia Scarlet. 

82-year-old Bilkis, who became the face of the Shaheen Bagh protests in India, was earlier this year featured among TIME Magazine's top 100 most influential personalities in the world. “Bilkis deserves recognition so the world acknowledges the power of resistance against tyranny,” the piece in TIME, written by journalist Rana Ayyub, said. “Bilkis gave hope and strength to activists and student leaders who were being thrown behind bars for standing up for the unpopular truth in a democracy that was sliding into authoritarianism, and inspired peaceful copycat protests across the country,” she added.