Rehana Fathima Pyarijaan Sulaiman was born into an orthodox Muslim family on 30 May 1986. Her father Pyarijaan Sulaiman died when she was in Class 12. She has a sister. Fathima completed B.Com and MCA degrees from Indira Gandhi National Open University. She believes in Tat Tvam Asi. Rehana Fathima's other name is Surya Gayatri. She has two children with her husband Manoj and worked as a telecommunications technician with BSNL until May 2020, when she was forced to take compulsory retirement. Fathima also modelled, before becoming a women’s rights activist. Rehana has also acted in a Malayalam film titled ‘Eka’ directed by her partner which talks about the lives of intersex persons. Rehana also sought to challenge bastions of male dominance by taking part in the Puli Kali, a popular event in Thrissur which usually see the attendance of all-male troupes.
Controversy
Fathima and her partner film-maker Manoj K Sreedhar, participated in the controversial 2014 Kiss of Love protest in Kochi against moral policing. In 2018, when a Muslim male assistant professor Jauhar Munnavir T of Farook Training College, Kozhikode compared women’s breasts to watermelons indirectly complaining that Muslim women do not dress properly, Fathima responded by posting a bare-chested photo covering her breasts with just watermelons. While the photo was hailed by many as a fitting answer to the sexist male professor, it also caused others to question the activist’s work by attracting attention through nudity. In October 2018, during movement of Entry of women to Sabarimala, Fathima was arrested on grounds of 'hurting religious sentiments' for posting a photo in Facebook, in which she was seen sitting in an allegedly 'obscene pose' after dressing up as a devotee of Ayyappa. She was in jail for 18 days and is now out on bail. In June 2020, Fathima posted a video of her semi-nude body on her social media platforms showing her two minor children, a boy and a girl, which sparked a massive outrage. The high court of Kerala denied her anticipatory bail application in The POCSO case againsgt Rehana fathima, after which she filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court against the high court’s decision.
