Kashmiri women & the cycle of violence

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Photo: Kamran Yosuf

Indian Administrated Kashmir, 22 June: The famous women poets, sages and mystics of Kashmir: of Lal Ded and Habba Khatoon, of Arnimal, of Rupa Bhawani. Their momory lives in their verses, born out of love and sufferings. Renouncing the entrapments of convention, these women seekers have marked their words in the hills and shrines of Kashmir, and in the hearts of Kashmiris.

May be you will think of the women rulers of Kashmir, from a thousand to some hundrend years ago; of Queen Didda, of Kota Rani who led extraordinary lives wielding power and making rules. But these are the epic women of history books. The women in Kashmir, for who they are: the women of Kashmir. The women acedemics, doctor, artist, politicians, and activists- the women who strive to make progress in their chosen fields.

But at the same time and its unfortunate part of the history that Women have borne the brunt of violence in two decades of conflict in Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir – raped, tortured, maimed and killed. Women in Kashmir have suffered enormously since the separatist violent in 1980-90.

Photo: Kamran Yosuf


According to a study by the Medecins Sans Frontiers, Kashmiri women are among the worst sufferers of sexual violence in the world. : sexual violence has been routinely perpetrated on Kashmiri women, with 11.6% of respondents saying they were victims of sexual abuse,” says the 2005 study, adding that the figure is much higher than that of Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Checyna.h

The women of Kashmir are also the women victims of mass rapes in villages whose names have become shorthand for un-investigated crimes. The women of Kashmir are the tens of thousands of widows and half widows; wives of killed and disappeared men, as well as mothers and grandmothers of missing children. Vulnerable, often impoverished, the sorrows, struggles and humiliation of these women of Kashmir are a catalogue of charges against the occupation of Kashmir.

“On account of lingering Kashmir conflict since many decades our hearts as Kashmiris are wounded, bruised and shattered and more so on 23rd February on account of the savage of act of mass rape committed against daughters of our nation on 23 February 1991 were at least 100 women were gang raped brutally by the unit soldiers of Indian army.” adds Rameez Makhdoomi.

The more we discuss about women safety in Kashmir, the less we shall reach on its end. “It is the matter of high and grave concern which is totally beyond our comprehensions. Though we feel that our women are safe but in many vast areas & circles it is not so.” said a Kashmiri resident and an executive engineer, Manzoor Nawchoo.

A non local resident of Mukhdoom sahib town, Bilal said “Kashmiri women have witnessed gruesome harassments so far, the need of the hour is only to change our mindset. On this women resistance day our aim should be to be unite once again and to and to set extraordinary example. Women in Kashmir need to be brave and courageous in every sphere of their lives, then for sure, we they can resist themselves without difficulty.”

However Manzoor Nawchoo further comments on this issue “Since we covered are covered by climatic & traditional restrictions when our women does not stay away out of their homes up to late in the night but how much safe they are during days even is a matter of concern especially at their male dominated work places& in our political circles. It is today only in the Newspapers where a women political activist has blamed her political bosses exploiting women in grab of providing jobs. Our young girls & women had been rendered vulnerable to such exploitation due to economical pressures.”

He further adds that “Unless we take stringent measures to secure our womenfolk economically, they are never safe. However there is a separate class of women who go astray for luxuries attractions despite being economically sound, they also pose a threat to the safety of women.”

Society has geared to technology driven society, but the perception about the women folk in Kashmir is still traditional as far we know though social media or in the public gatherings. Women folk are competing now and the change has taken place righty so since past few years. It depends on society which services as an engine and how it works on its nets and bolts; the dress code, way of presenting preparing drives from it. Then it takes a way to complete the process. One can see women folk are one of the important wheels in a society to run it on towards building the sound society.

One society can’t be all alike the other. The black sheeps are everywhere and such heinous crimes take place when we totally ignore the things. Everyone has to play a pivotal role to keep things under check. Things like drug menace has added more fear to it, because at least the addicts feels alienated and commits a blunder during the severe complications. The most important are parents, as they can play pivotal role and awareness camps in educational regarding, it would be a positive step.

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