Mahmood Farooqui

Mahmood Farooqui is an Indian writer, performer and director. He specializes in a type of story-telling known as Dastangoi. Farooqui along with his uncle Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, noted Urdu poet and literary critic, revived Dastangoi, the ancient art of Urdu story telling. He was awarded the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Pursakar in 2010 for it.

His book Besieged: voices from Delhi 1857[12] was awarded the Ramnath Goenka for the best Non-fiction book of the year. This book is a translation of mutiny papers providing a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people who found themselves stuck during the revolt of 1857. He was also a researcher for The Last Mughal, a book by William Dalrymple. In August 2016 he was found guilty of rape by a lower court, but in September 2017 he was acquitted by the Delhi High Court. The High Court judgment was later upheld by the Supreme Court.

Quotes about Mahmood Farooqi

• More recently, in late September, the issue of mistreatment of women once against came to the fore when a Delhi court overturned the rape conviction of filmmaker Mahmood Farooqui, saying that "a feeble no" could still signal willingness on the part of an alleged victim.
  • November 10, 2017, CNN, #MeToo helps spark wider conversation around sexual abuse in India

• An Indian court has overturned a rape conviction against a film director, ruling that a “feeble no” can signal consent, especially in cases where the alleged victim is well-educated... Mahmood Farooqui was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2016 for sexually assaulting an American postgraduate student while she was visiting his home in Delhi.
  • The Guardian, 'A feeble no may mean yes': Indian court overturns rape conviction

• William Darymple asking my rapist to speak at #JLF and then blocking me for criticizing him is the reality that many women who come forward against powerful men face. The rapist isn’t considered the problem, the survivor is. If only they would stay silent the issue would go away.
  • — Christine Marrewa-Karwoski (@CMarrewa) June 26, 2021 [1] also quoted in [2]

• [Justice Ashutosh Kumar had said that the appellant] “had no idea that the prosecutrix was unwilling, and there are instances when a feeble ‘no’ on the part of a woman may mean ‘yes’ during the course of a sexual act”... “In cases where the parties are known to each other, it could be really difficult to decipher whether a feeble ‘no’ – (accompanied by) little or no resistance – actually amounts to denial of consent,” ... “And even if it did occur, (there is lack of clarity on) whether it was without the consent/will of the prosecutrix,”.... “it may not necessarily always mean yes in case of yes or no in case of no” during “an act of passion, actuated by libido”.
  • The Delhi High Court in a verdict on rape charges. quoted in [3]