Female bouncer Mehrunisa: A ‘punch’ at orthodox mentality
Meet Mehrunisha Shaukat Ali, a woman from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur who is an iconoclast for those who believe that woman cannot become bouncers. The 34-year-old works as a bouncer in a nightclub and handles frequent spats there along with keeping an eye on female customers.
Despite being a bouncer whose job is to handle untoward situations in the nightclub, her politeness is unquestionable. She has six siblings at home — three brothers and three sisters. Interestingly, one of her sisters is also following her footsteps.
Mehrunisha started working as a bouncer in 2004 when she was studying in Class 10. However, initially, she was treated as a security guard instead of a bouncer, which she opposed strictly.
“I am the first woman bouncer in the country, I fought a lot to get this status. I used to get very angry when I was called a guard. But after bitter a struggle I got the status of the first woman bouncer in the country,” Mehrunisha told news agency IANS.
Although her father was unhappy with this work, he used to ask her to leave this job following taunts and comments from people. But the time has come when the same people say if there is a daughter, she should be like Mehrunisha. It’s all because of her hard work and ‘never-give-up’ attitude.
Unfortunately, Mehrunisha lost her job due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is currently unemployed. Since private events were not taking place either, she has no part-time job as well.
She has the responsibility of her family on her shoulders, but she cannot do anything as there are no jobs available in the market.
Mehrunisha has been felicitated with many awards so far. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, she was also honoured by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Not only this, but a book is also being written on her.
Despite receiving so many accolades, she is not happy. She said that she could not get the thing that she deserves as per the kind of struggle she did in her life. And the situation is that she has no job at this moment.
“I faced a lot of trouble in the beginning, neither the family used to support me nor anybody else. I was overweight too, after that I joined NCC. I wanted to join police force or Army but father was not liking it,” she says.
“I also appeared for the police exam and succeeded. If my father would have said yes at that time, I might have been a Sub-Inspector by now,” she regrets.
“There was so much struggle in my life that I could not even get married. After a road accident, my sister’s husband left her, after which the responsibility of their children came upon me. I received marriage proposals but nobody is ready to take the responsibility of children,” she further says.
