Cyber lynching not to cow down Hanan Hamid

Kochi: At the end of a 36-hour roller-coaster ride in which she saw her being hailed as a fighter, being offered a role in a movie, vilified as a cheat and then back as a role-model, Hanan Hamid on Thursday said she wouldn’t give up.

Cyberbullies were preying on the 19-year-old undergraduate student of Al Azhar College, in Thodupuzha, after reports appeared in media about her life as a fish vendor.

They launched a virulent and abusive campaign questioning the authenticity and honesty of her claims. Some said it’s a promo for a film.

“I will be living as I lived till yesterday. The troll makers can roll their bulldozer over my body, but I will continue to live. I will live even by washing dishes,” she told reporters here.

“I wanted to live with dignity. I wear decent clothes and a ring on my finger as I do the job of an anchor that requires good clothes. These are all costumes for making a living,” she said, demolishing the theory that her clothes gave away her story.

A spokesman of the Al Azhar said the authorities had known that she was coming from an economically weak background and she raised the money for her education by herself. “The college management has decided that henceforth the college will meet her educational expenditure,” he told DC.

A woman running a tailoring shop in the one-room rented by Ms Hamid vouched for her claims.

“The girl has been staying in the room for the past two months, and she had gone for selling fish to raise money for her education. She was always telling me about her wish to become a doctor,” the woman told a TV channel. She also said that the girl was doing odd jobs.