Irom Sharmila Chanu

"Menghaobi" Irom Sharmila Chanu (born March 14, 1972), also known as the Iron Lady of Manipur.

Irom Sharmila's eyes still sparkle. She comes from the North-east Indian state of Manipur, where a decades-long insurgency, combined with a draconian response from the state has created a place where violence is common-place. Over the years, more than 40 insurgent groups, many of them little more than criminal gangs, have demanded autonomy from India. The authorities have responded by dispatching thousands of troops, creating a state that is almost as heavily militarised as Kashmir.

Her fight is against the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, , a piece of legislation that gives police and military effective immunity from prosecution.

She has not met her mother once these 10 years: her pact with her unlettered mother is that they will see each other only after she achieves her political goal. Her body organs have begun to degenerate irreversibly; her menstrual periods have halted. The tube through which she is forcefully fed is continuously painful.

When Sharmila began her fast on 3 November 2000, police arrested her and charged her with attempted suicide. Such a charge allows detention in jail for just 364 days. As a result, Sharmila has never been brought to trial and is annually released and rearrested.

Sharmila is force-fed a mixture of liquified carbohydrates and proteins by a nasal tube three times a day.