BBC revealed the list of the 100 most influential women of this year, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui's mother, Mehroonisa, is one among them. The actor took to social media to share the news.
Nawazuddin captioned the pic as: "A Lady who showed courage against all odds being in a conservative Family from a small village - My Mother #100MostInfluentialWomenInTheWorld @BBC (sic)."
It definitely is a great news for the whole of India, and not just for Nawaz.
At the age of 65 Mehroonisa Siddiqui is a homemaker and she believes that ‘it is never too late to learn’. After being very poorly educated herself, she decided to start studying on her own. Soon enough she was getting the basics right, and now she manages to teach 350-400 students in her village. Among these students there have been 3 who have joined the army recently.
Nawaz talks highly of his mom as his mother was the sole reason he went to National School Of Drama (NSD) and went on to become an actor. When Nawaz came up to her and said that he wanted to become an actor, she was very supportive yet she insisted that he got the proper training before he ventured into that field.
Mehroonisa also had to keep her wedding jewelry as mortgage in order to get money for her teaching assignments, and make sure that the students got the proper education. She also helped her sons and daughters get the best of education.
It was all of this that led to BBC approach Mehroonisa for this prestigious award.
Other Indians in BBC’s 100 Most Influential Women 2017 list are Mithali Raj, Dr. Urvashi Sahni, Priyanka Roy and Nitya Thummalachetty among others. Pakistani singer Momina Mustehsan is also in the list.
Image Source: Instagram/nawazuddin_siddiqui