London’s mayor Sadiq Khan has shared his concerns on the alarming rise of sexual violence against women in the UK.
“It breaks my heart that so many women and girls do not feel safe in our country on a daily basis. And let’s be honest – these problems are caused by the unacceptable attitudes and behaviours of men,” Khan told The Independent.
“The problem is not just with the minority of men who are violent, the problem is also with those men who are sexist, continue to behave inappropriately around women, perpetuate a toxic form of masculinity or just stand by silently when women feel threatened or are being threatened.”
“Men simply must change. I promise to spearhead the change we desperately need to see in the way women and girls are treated in every single part of our society and at all ages,” he added.
Khan later took to Twitter and shared, “Every woman and girl should be able to feel safe: whatever time of day, whatever they wear and wherever they are in our city.”
London mourned the tragic demise of marketing executive Sarah Everard after she disappeared last month while walking home from Clapham.
In a tragic turn of events, her body was found one week after she went missing, propelling widespread unrest in the England capital. The head of London’s Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, later said that she has no plans to quit after receiving ample criticism over the handling of a vigil organised for Everard.
Police officers were seen handcuffing women and removing them from crowds at a memorial held for the 33-year-old. The case has provoked a heated debate about the violence against women in the country.
Source: Multiple News Agencies/Websites/Social Media
Disclaimer: This is a personal reflection article and does not claim to be based on targeted primary data collection on the topic. My reflections stem from the conversations and stories shared by women from Kashmir during my travels across the region.
While deriving from the stories, I only seek to provide a broader framework for my argument and will not be revealing the identity or details of the stories that have been shared with me through bonds of trust.
I am blessed to have this opportunity to provide a safe space to my sisters and mothers in Kashmir and wish to ensure that I don’t misrepresent or misinterpret their voices in any way.
I seek to offend none and only write to advocate for evolving more safe spaces to build the context for a gender empowerment narrative in the region that is supported by the notion of cultural agency, suited to the spirit of “Kashmiriyat” as the women themselves see it through their own stories.
Having said that, this article forms the basis of my primary assessment as a peace-builder for more intended research efforts on the topic in the future.
I wish to clearly mention at the very outset that I write this article as an outsider, a Bengali woman hailing from a matriarchal cultural setting, seeking to understand the context for designing gender empowerment focused policy inputs in Jammu and Kashmir.
I am still learning and would love to receive feedback and alternative perspectives on the topic.
Introduction
Stories have always been my most preferred form or mode of getting to know and understand a new culture. As a Bengali woman working to support research on a number of development goals in Jammu and Kashmir, I always knew that local stories and experiences of the people would be invaluable for me to build my sense of cultural sensitivity to help me contextualize my work with the intention to better suit the needs of the people on the ground.
It is in this context that I write to present a preliminary observation pertaining to an important focus area for my work. I write today to outline my assessment of the lack of and consequent need for safe spaces to bring to life a narrative based on women’s stories and experiences to build the foundation for gender empowerment initiatives in Jammu and Kashmir.
Generous Warmth, Pain and Silence, the Womb for the birth of Power
It was during my visits to many a home while on my field trip across Kashmir( I have only travelled to a limited extent and have much more to see) that I first realized how the world-renowned hospitality of Jammu and Kashmir is a tradition held in place by women within the community.
They are the ones who invite you in and give you a sense of home. They are the ones who ensure that the essence of their culture seeps into your veins through the cheerful conversations at the hearth over steaming mugs of salty tea and bread, the ones who make that effort to go that extra mile to help you acclimatize and also offer you with a bountiful heart, their home, to help you settle down.
I have lost count of how many homes have opened up their doors to invite me to stay as a daughter.
This is the tradition, the best representation of treating the guest as no less than a blessed encounter. As I chatted with many a woman in many of the homes of my team members, their relatives and also people I met on the way, it struck me as truly interesting how Kashmiris welcomed people from all over the world to experience home in their land as if they were their kin but at the same time struggled to trust that they had a safe space as a reciprocal gesture from the world out there that seems to have forgotten them.
How much pain and a feeling of being forsaken could have pushed the Kashmiri people to love and embrace the world without any reciprocal expectation in return.
“Outsiders are all the same didi. They first give you hope and then disown you.” These were the words of a young girl who never failed to tell me how much she loved spending time with me.
There seemed to be a trauma of betrayal, a general sense of deep hurt.
This made me wonder if as an outsider, I had something to offer besides my research-related skills. Maybe I could offer a strategy to provide a safe space for stories untold and voices unheard of for years. Maybe I could be an ear for the voices of women to find their power as important stakeholders in defining their culture that they already do, albeit silently.
This young girl eventually shared with me her story and experiences and how she rose out of feelings of abandonment, exploitation and the craving for a safe space to be herself. As it stands, she wishes to be a religious educator one day in a school.
In Kashmir, as per my observations, there seems to be an evolved culture of more or less clear segregation of gender roles that is designed to suit the circumstances.
The conflict has torn and highly militarized as a region as Kashmir already is, besides the history of the population struggling repeatedly due to instances of broken promises, political fall-outs and externally triggered disruptions through an ever-evolving and dynamic trend in militancy, the region naturally stands as one of the least-favourable places to even rationally consider finding a crucible of psycho-emotional safe space for heart-felt sharing and outpouring of pain, especially for women.
The men are vigilant of their households( naturally so) and in the spirit of keeping their families safe, the women consciously seem to choose to facilitate the arrangement by maintaining a careful silence that is palpable but barely made visible.
As a facilitator trained to read silence while listening to various stakeholders, I decided to make a conscious effort to listen and connect deeper.
In some cases, stories eventually came out in cathartic outpourings and many a woman took to me as someone who they could instinctively trust to empathize with their silenced stories to some extent. It was on one of my visits to the home of a lady Police Officer that she shared her story of choosing to be a part of the State Security Structure back in the early 90s, during the heyday of the insurgency.
I suddenly found myself looking at empowerment as a response to circumstances, a conscious choice that this lady had made as an 18-year-old, 30 years back, to not let uncensored violence rip apart her life or her future like it had for many others. Her two daughters today aspire to be a business lawyer and an administrator though motivated to do so from afar sheltered reality as it stands now.
When this officer narrated to me her story, I witnessed her re-living the moments that shaped her choice and decision. I was taken back to the times when foreign militants from across the border would barge into homes, harass young women and stay in the homes of different people without any consideration of how the families perceived their invasive tendencies.
Sometimes young women from these households would be coerced to marry the militants and then inevitably they would be left at some point with fatherless children as the militants would be neutralized at the hands of the state or some would even flee without any notice.
During those days when joining the Police Force wasn’t exactly an applauded option for any young woman, this lady made the choice, supported by her family and is still serving the Police Force for over 25 years. Given this lady’s decision to join the Police Force came during the most unlikely times, despite the passage of thirty years and the militancy situation being somewhat in better control than yesteryears, you wouldn’t find many Kashmiri women coming forward to make the same choice today.
Maybe there could have been a different outcome? Maybe there could have been more women making such choices in the face of dire uncertainties and struggling it out had they been aware of such an existing story? We would never know.
Interestingly, it was this lady’s two daughters who encouraged her to share, hinting to me time and again that their mother had a story that was silenced. Clearly, they derived inspiration and strength from the story and wanted me to experience the same.
On probing why she wouldn’t share her story generally, I was told that it wasn’t safe to confide in people with stories of deep personal meaning and trauma. There was a sense of fear of ridicule and judgment that weighed down on the imposed silence.
To me, this particular case and story opened up the possibility of an existing empowerment narrative that is already present in the valley but silenced and not studied as a factor of post-traumatic growth for women. This lady had seen much harassment, much threat and despite all odds had remained firm on her choice.
Maybe there were more like her, leading the way, championing the cause of standing one’s ground and being decision-makers in their own stride.
As a policy researcher, I was stunned at the potency of such stories of courage and inspiration but my conflict analysis background told me that these stories needed the optimal environment to be brought to life as lived possibilities.
The silence for once appeared to me as a gestation period for the birth of power should the environment be fertile and conducive for the birthing process.
Over the period of a month as I listened deeper, I connected with women who are silently leading not only as matriarchs in households but also participating in elected posts at the behest of their menfolk to support change and the search for power by the community to be decision-makers and masters of their own fate.
Even in public posts, women taking up reserved seats are mostly seen to be supportive and silent in terms of addressing their own priorities and are mostly guided by their menfolk in deciding on community priorities in their official capacities.
As I travelled,I listened further to stories of women who have lost their dear ones to the militancy, witnessed torture of their family members, suffered lasting injuries as a result of the militancy and yet fought on to emerge wiser, stronger, shaping generations and thus the community and culture.
Curious eyes, giggles and hushed murmurs followed my footsteps everywhere as I met women from the cities, towns and villages.
I felt the silence everywhere but could earn only limited trust and opportunity to open up the safe space for story sharing. As the lady officer’s story inspired her daughters to look at the cultural agency of women in their context in an enabling light, maybe allowing such stories to be shared could inspire future generations of women to rethink possibilities for becoming a part of an existing empowerment narrative rather than a borrowed one that is usually peddled in mainstream discourses.
Maybe such stories can encourage women to decide for themselves that their roles are not defined by or limited to the conflict-driven idea of “safety” or “acceptability” and that local women have already laid the first steps to re-imagining empowering possibilities.
Measuring Possibilities in Story-sharing: Recommended Actions
Compassionate dialogue circles with the aid of trained facilitators and supportive psychologists could go a long way to bring out this narrative that is otherwise suppressed and soon endangered to be lost beyond recovery.
These narratives can in turn support the cause of women making a conscious choice to welcome gestures by advocates of gender equality to create a space for empowering opportunities. Opportunities are after all only useful when the target group finds it feasible and are encouraged to use such opportunities to their benefit as a mark of conscious choice.
Women need stories to thus frame a narrative that supports their sense of cultural agency to negotiate against the seeming trend.
In terms of the trend to silently support, there could evolve a way to create a culture of psycho-emotional safety and protection of privacy while developing the narrative from real-life stories.
Anonymity and confidentiality in story sharing circles and research documentation could be one way of ushering in trust to support the process.
Conclusion
In Kashmir, the silence of women appears to be a choice that is steeped in culturally adaptive motive, a trauma driven response and an attempt to foster the remains of a culture that is still seeking to stay rooted in the spirit of coexistence and community.
As one young woman and my peer mentioned; in her opinion, women here can never make it far while living in the region and they can barely do much.
I found myself instinctively responding to her exasperation with the following words, “It is the contrary actually. Hadn’t it been for the silent choice to be the sponge and the weaving net of the cultural fabric that you women have provided for generations, there would be no Kashmir. Maybe it is time to write that story together.”
Sandi Curtis is a music therapist who lives in Montreal Canada. She is the author of the book, Music for Women Survivors of Violence.
She describes in Psychology Today that we are certainly experiencing hard times now: As if COVID-19 alone wasn’t enough, it has revealed another epidemic of domestic violence and racial injustice that has long been embedded in our society.
All of these are incredibly challenging, but perhaps together they may serve as an impetus for real change, and the sustained effort needed to accomplish change. While this may leave us hopeful, the circumstances and the efforts required of us can be hard on the spirit. Where can we turn for the much-needed support?
The answer is music.
We have two examples of music that are relevant to Sandi’s healing effect of music.
“Mouj Kasheer, aabad rozuim, shadaab rozuim, mouj kasheer” literally translates to, “Mother Kashmir, stay joyful forever, stay prosperous forever, Mother Kashmir”. Presented by : BackDoor Indies Written & Performed : Mu’Azzam & Shen B Music.
Hidden Hands is a musical tribute by some of Birmingham leading artists to UK’s Black (African, Asian, Caribbean and minority ethnic) communities, that are four times more likely to die from COVID-19.
Disturbing images of a 3-year-old child sitting on the chest of his slain grandfather in the Indian held Kashmir have stirred a debate, with former government officials, journalists and analysts saying the child has been made a “propaganda tool.”
Omar Abdullah, former chief minister of the region, said that everything becomes a “propaganda tool” in the bloody violence in Kashmir.
“A three year old toddler has to have his misery broadcast to the whole world to drive home the “we good they bad” message. We would have got the point without his misery being filmed & shared so please don’t,” Abdullah wrote on Twitter.
Amnesty International India has also said that by disclosing the identity of a minor witness of a crime, Kashmir zone police stands in violation of Article 74 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and protection of Children) Act, 2015 which strictly prohibits identification of any minor through name, residence, photos or by any other means.
Critics say that dignity of the dead and vulnerability of the survivors are all being treated as a joke on social media without taking into consideration that how it is going to affect the victim family particularly when a child is among the victim.
“Stop sharing graphic photos and videos of the kid mindlessly for some retweets. Journalists should be especially careful. It is unethical and insensitive. Not many can handle the trauma such images can trigger,” Majid Maqbool, a senior journalist, wrote on Twitter.
‘Pulitzer lovers’
After the heart-wrenching images went viral on social media, Sambit Patra, Indian ruling party’s chief spokesperson, mocked it on Twitter by captioning the image “PULITZER LOVERS??,” a swipe at three Kashmiri photojournalists who won the Pulitzer Prize for their searing images earlier this year.
Many Indians denounced the tweet and called on him to show some empathy.
“Do you have an iota of empathy left in you?” Dia Mirza, an Indian actress, wrote in a Twitter post while mentioning the tweet of the BJP spokesman.
Sagarika Ghose, a journalist, while requesting the spokesman to delete the tweet, said: “It is heartless and hateful tweet. Intense suffering and a grieving child, not the moment for nasty politics. Kindly delete.”
Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, a Pakistani federal minister, wrote on Twitter: “I am in a state of a shock, how one can be so heartless? #ModiEndia is a shame for humanity, cursed group of people….. #Shame #Shame #Shame”
As the social media erupted with the war of words on the incident, political parties in Indian-administered Kashmir are seeking an inquiry into the killing of the man.
The Jammu and Kashmir’s Apni Party demanded an impartial probe into the matter after the family claimed the deceased man was killed by government forces.
In a statement, the Apni Party spokesman said that the family version of the deceased and the circumstantial evidence, prima facie suggest that the man was killed in cold blood.
“The government should order an impartial investigation into the circumstances that led to the killing of the deceased man.”
Police in the region have rejected the claim, and blamed militants for the killing of the 65-year-old civilian.
Kashmir has always been in grip of one or another kind of crisis. The dark clouds of uncertainty loom over the echoing mountains from last several decades. The prolonged conflict has transformed the beautiful valley into a devastating dystopia, forcing the whole community to fight a life and death battle against the threat of extinction from the tyrant tides of war. Similarly, continuous violence has turned conventional morality upside down, engulfing pure and white, young and old, women and children alike. Here, children are cradled by conflict as such fear and trauma occupy their early emotional state. Their subsequent formative years are ruined by the recurrent nightmares of devastation. They are the remains of the dreadful days, a liability upon the history, the voiceless, voices of despair and degeneration.
Childhood is that period in life which everyone wants to re-visit or live eternally, because it is characterized by uncorrupted nature, purity and serenity. But children living in conflict riddled Kashmir do not enjoy instinctively idyllic and pleasant childhood days of vigor, energy and a free spirit, to roam and bloom in an unadulterated world of dreams and fairy tales. They are even forbidden to give ear to imaginary tales of fancy and fantasy, deemed to incite libido of resistance. The lures of love and sleep inducing lullabies doesn’t satiate them any more in the mists of gloom and glum that surround their small spaces like the shades of an eternal doom. They are suffocated by enduring suppression. An organized violence enforces them to surrender their whims and wishes, their charms and heavenly grace to solace unrecognized voices of bereavement, mourning and misfortune.
In Kashmir, life of children has been a mark of woe! A mark worry! Their fate is akin to and resembles caged birds unable to set themselves free or stretch their wings in order to touch the sky, for accomplishment of sky of dreams. They are literary limped creatures who can neither walk through the lane nor wade into lake; even they cannot waft along the waves as the western breeze smells, the smell of death, it carries the communal rot of conflict from the debris of dying dreams. The mighty towers of hegemony, the tsunami of religious hatred and the alarms of army tear their childhood apart to feel an adult pain; the agony Kashmir children felt from ages, through colonial rages and internal ravages.
Kashmir crisis has swallowed up their agile spaces like the sand absorbs the sea. The phony fun of the city life, the battered beats of time, and the world dark and wide curse them for being their companions and mock them for not harboring the hope to nurture the eerie of childhood dream, of sunshine and flowers, of everlasting enjoyment, happiness and serenity. The long curfewed nights stagnates their future dreams; the lines of division drawn in the middle of the mid night, the accession signed amidst the howling cries created iron walls of anger and mind forged manacles of memory. The vernal breeze asks their sport but the fear of winter chill keep them aloof, the smiling tulips urge them bloom, but the buds and blossoms plead them to drink an autumn death as the approaching winter will wither them grey.
Childhood comes once, lives for once and is enjoyed by once. There is nothing like twice, thrice or next, there are no backward-forward movements that could transport us into childhood transparency, no elixir to revert us back in order to re-vitalize our days of youthful hilarity. There is nothing! No alchemy to transform human beings into primitive chora or oral stage. The deadlock is locked between semiotic and symbolic, between real and imaginary. There are only mirrors that reflect us along thousand others, only signifiers that trace us within thousand traces. So, the only thing left is to provide disadvantageous children a chance to seize the merry moments and enjoy the most.
But the question arises do we provide Kashmir children a chance to live a happy childhood? The answer would be an affirmative no! Infact, in Kashmir, children are cradled by conflict. The fierce waves of war have violated their years of innocence. The forces of calm and combat have always encroached their childhood premises. They grow up in the glowing bars of gun battles. The stones and swords muster their courage against the imminent shadows of disease and death. They are unjustly fixed together in the patches of conflict like the pieces of an unsolved puzzle. They have only been left with the choices of dullness and burden, survival and suffering, loss and longing.
The bright August day brought darker nights of neglect. It was a long summer day when our past became a frozen fact, a dawn of disjuncture from the mythic place of desire. It was a queer, sultry summer, when scenes were scripted before the secret siege. The imaginary home reconstructed through childhood memories have been irretrievably lost. It was a time when we had everything before us, we had nothing before us. It was an era of war on peace when Kashmir was landed into a foreign land. Since then Kashmir children are locked in the recurrent lockdowns and packed in the patches of conflict. They are caught between Covid and conflict, calm and combat, death and despair. The conflict cradles them by the tunes of torment and cursed normalcy has captured their calm despair. They are the unspoken voices of crisis, the silent sufferers of our simmering summer, and the causality of our courageous combats. From now, do they deserve much kinder times? The god’s of war amiably don’t-think-so, until it gets pretty late!
by Neelam Iqbal // As tensions continue to rise in Kashmir after the Pulwama terror attack of February 2019 where over forty military personnel lost their lives, fear has, once again, gripped the Valley of Kashmir. Over four hundred separatists are claimed to have been arrested and local political organisations have been banned by the Indian central government.
The general population of Kashmir are stuck in a cyclical pattern of mass local protests, state sanctioned military crackdowns, gun battles (between police and the few remaining rebels), local calls for statewide shutdowns and Indian government imposed curfews. Decades of violence and conflict have taken a huge toll on the mental health of those living in the Kashmir Valley. Mental health experts note a rise in symptoms of psychological distress such as anxiety and suicide.
The mental health burdens of this militarisation is reflected in interviews conducted by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in two conflict affected rural districts of Kashmir between 1989-2005. During this period, one in ten people reported having lost one or more members of their immediate family to the violence. A third had lost extended family members. Just under half of those interviewed reported that they were unhappy to the extent that they had suicidal thoughts (33.9%). On average, an adult living in the Kashmir Valley has witnessed or experienced 7.7 traumatic events during his/her lifetime and approximately 70% adults had witnessed the sudden or violent death of someone they knew. (1,2)
The highest estimates of depression, anxiety and PTSD were significantly higher in women than men. Nearly 30% of Kashmiri adults use tobacco – one person in half of all Kashmiri households- as a coping strategy. People were seen dealing with stress by isolating themselves or becoming aggressive which are considered typical coping mechanisms when exposed to violence. Whilst the people interviewed believed talking confidentially to someone they trust was helpful when confronted with tension (89.4%), over two-thirds (68%) did not know what counselling is.(3) The great levels of suicidal ideation in such strong Muslim communities was flagged by the MSF researchers as “a worrying indicator of the level of despair and hopelessness” (1). The chronic violence from the conflict has resulted in a 33% increase in mental health problems (3).
While mental health is a now well-recognised condition in Jammu and Kashmir, services remain thin. In areas where MSF operates, community based mental health services have been implemented. In all other Kashmiri districts community-based mental health services are almost non-existent, despite the intentions set out in the Indian Mental Health Policy to implement such services(1).
History of the conflict
The people of Kashmir are survivors of a long, enduring and internationally under-reported conflict. In 1989, the conflict took a turn towards armed insurgency, in the aftermath of an allegedly rigged local election, which the Kashmiri people believed robbed them of their voice in the Indian democratic process. As a result, more than half the population of Jammu and Kashmir has been subjected to or witnessed violent government crackdowns, public explosions and cross firing between military personnel and armed rebels in the decade that followed the insurgency(4). The extent and violence of the conflict has been overwhelming, with reports estimating enforced disappearances of 8,000-10,000 Kashmiri people (with over 7,000 unmarked mass graves discovered), over a 100,000 extra-judicial killings and more than 10,700 gang-rapes and cases of sexual abuse(4).
The past two decades, which saw the squashing of the Kashmiri armed insurgency by Indian security forces, has not resulted in the cessation of hostilities. The number of armed militants, which are estimated to be around the one hundred mark, are met with by a military might which is 770,000 strong; making Kashmir the most militarised zone in the world. The decade that followed the armed insurgency gave birth to a youth who chose to engage in peaceful protests against what they believed to be the military occupation of Kashmir, but were met with the same kind of brutality by the Indian military as was witnessed by the rebels before them.
The history of the conflict is rooted in the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947; and example of one of the bloodiest and largest mass migrations of people in modern history. Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim majority state, ruled by oppressive Dogra maharajas since the Treaty of Amritsar in 1847, became a bone of contention between the newly formed nations of India and Pakistan. The state’s strategic and economic importance led to persuasive, bids by both India and Pakistan, for the annexation of Kashmir into their respective territories.
The two countries have fought three successive wars over Kashmir in 1948, 1965 and 1999,but the political status of Kashmir remains unresolved.(5)The fragile “line of control” between Pakistan and India’s northern borders runs through the middle of Kashmir, giving Pakistan control of 30% of the original state consisting of Gilgit and Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir whereas India has control of 40% of the state including Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Ladakh. The longevity of this conflict is rooted in the accession of the state of Jammu and Kashmir by its Hindu leader to India, a move contested by Pakistan in light of the state’s Muslim majority. The Kashmiri people, on the other hand have suffered long standing resentment towards India due to never receiving the plebiscite to decide their own fate, as promised by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru and as envisioned in a UN resolution in 1948. Successive governments of Pakistan point towards the great injustice afforded the Kashmiri people by disallowing them the promised plebiscite, the outcome of which Pakistan is confident would result its favour whilst the Indian state argues that Pakistan supports terrorism in Kashmir meant to damage India and worsen the relations between the government of India and the Kashmiri people. The Kashmiri people themselves remain divided between wishing to join Pakistan and forming an independent secular state of their own.(5,6,7)
The most recent uprising occurred in 2016 – after the murder of a charismatic 22-year-old insurgent called Burhan Wani, which led to another round of human right atrocities by the Indian army. The Human Rights Report for Indian-Controlled Kashmir, published in 2016 reports:
“Apart from the basic history of 1947, incidents of the past like massacres of Bomai-Sopore, Gowakadal, Kulgram, Zakoora, Tengpora, Bijbera etc.., torture and sexual violence, gang rapes (like in Kunan poshpora hamlet, Tabinda rape and murder case, Asiya-Nilofar rape andmurder), draconian laws (like AFSPA and PSA), fake encounters, extra judicial killings, disappearances, so on and so forth have been pushing people from time to time to voice for Azadi (freedom), and that voice grows louder each passing day” (4)
The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA) enable the Indian military to carry out any search operation without a warrant, arrest or shoot to kill any person with or without reason, whilst also allowing security forces to detain and torture citizens without following normal legal procedures. Both said laws protect any military personnel from being prosecuted for their actions despite international pressure from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International – AFSPA and PSA have not been revoked in Kashmir.(8) Due to the undemocratic nature of these laws, there have been around 10,000 enforced disappearances in the region since 1980; countless arbitrary arrests and illegal detentions; injuries due to excessive force against peaceful protests; assaults on health services/aid workers; sexual violence; media gags/ attacks on media professionals; restriction on religious activities and blockades on communication services.(4)
Towards a just solution
To meet the growing mental health needs of the Kashmiri population, a comprehensive mental health plan involving all relevant community institutions would be a good place to start. The long-term solution necessitates a holistic response, which tackles the factors in the political environment that contribute to mental ill health. The Kashmiri people, whose lives are lived on a knife’s edge, see little hope for a resolution of a conflict that has engulfed their collective memory; the hope for peace and security ever elusive.
Kashmiri Professor of International Law Sheikh Shaukat Hussain laments
“we have been telling and re-telling our accounts to anyone who will listen, knowing full well that nothing will emanate from these conversations. There is a sort of hopelessness we feel when we search for any remedy within your system” (10) .
As the media focus on the tensions between India and Pakistan and the potential of a nuclear war, it is ironic that the plight of those at the heart of the conflict is ignored. It is our responsibility as the international community to listen to Kashmiris, amplify their voices, show solidarity and ensure that their needs are centred in all conversations about a resolution to this decades-old conflict.
Neelam Iqbal Neelam Iqbal is a Pakistani Kashmiri student born in England. Her family’s village in Pakistani Kashmir (Azad Jammu and Kashmir) is 2 hours away from the Line of Control between Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Indian-controlled Kashmir. From a young age, her and her family have been involved in activism supporting the struggle for Kashmiri independence, specifically in solidarity with Kashmiris suffering in India. She has a Global Health BSc from Queen Mary, University of London and is currently studying at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in Control of Infectious Diseases MSc. She is very passionate about conflict and health, infectious diseases and disease control programmes.
One of the greatest blunders of history is the Kashmir issue perpetrated by the British Empire and its price is being paid by its inhabitants with their blood. Three wars have been fought on that issue between two countries, India and Pakistan, but still, ill-will and confrontation exist in its place. Its strategic importance, by having a common border to China, India, and Pakistan, has led the Kashmir to an unresolvable dispute and no attention is being paid to the hues and cries of the Kashmiri people.
People who are raising their voices for their democratic rights are becoming the victim of state-sponsored violence and terrorism. Freedom-fighters are declared international terrorists; Syed Salahuddin was declared a global terrorist by the State Department of the United States in 2017. The United States screams blue murder and raises her voice for any incident of mass killing when it suits her strategic interests. On Kashmir issue, she keeps herself aloof to the entire situation and seems now to walk in India’s shoes.
Indian troops deployed in Kashmir are given special immunity to any human rights violation as the Armed Force Special Power Act (AFSPA), 1990 grants Indian troops inordinate rights. AFSPA has stymied the legal rights of Kashmiri people. First ever United Nations Human Rights report on Kashmir, published in June 2018, has divulged the atrocities and human rights violation committed in the Indian-administrated Kashmir (IAK) and Pakistan Administrated Kashmir (PAK).
This report is an indictment to India for deliberate use of pellet guns, human rights violation, and immunity to the armed forces for their acts; and to Pakistan, it laid emphasis on the freedom of expression and beliefs and no act of mass killing by Pakistan government has been reported. The report has demanded the independent investigations to probe of civilian killings, human rights violation and respect of the right of self-determination of the Kashmiris which is continuously denied by the Indian government.
The struggle for the rights of self-determination has been undeterred despite all atrocities by the Indian forces. India refers their struggle tantamount to terrorism. How the right of self-determination can be compared to terrorism when people are struggling for their independence from foreign occupation?
It was India that took the Kashmir issue to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on January 1, 1948. The United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan proposed the plebiscite to decide the fate of Kashmir to India or Pakistan, but it couldn’t become a reality. Although, UNSC resolution on East Timor was enforced and she gained independence from Indonesia in 1999 when a plebiscite was conducted under the United Nations commission.
During General Musharraf era, the four-point formula was also devised which included; free movement of masses on both sides of the Indian Administrated Kashmir and Pakistan Administrated Kashmir, autonomous status to both states, withdrawal of troops, and a joint supervising mechanism for implementation of all the process. But it also couldn’t become a reality. Before any plan would be implemented, skirmishes on the sides accentuated and extremist groups are also a reason for increasing the conflict.
On November 28, 2018, Pakistan laid the foundation stone for the construction of Kartapur Corridor as a gesture of good-will. This corridor would allow Sikhs to visit the revered place of Guru Nanak located in the gurdwara. Indian Foreign Minister, Sushma Suraj, responding to all that process said, “The initiative doesn’t mean bilateral initiative would start.” Elections are going to happen this year in India and during the election campaign, in both India and Pakistan, the hard-line stance is adopted in public which is not favorable for both countries. Initiative on any peace process always stumbled and lurched.
It can be aptly said on Kashmir issue that “we can ignore the reality, but we cannot ignore the consequence of ignoring reality.” Right for freedom can be suppressed, but it can’t be scuttled for an infinite time. In the past, wars have been fought on that issue, but peace can’t be obtained. Both sides couldn’t reach any conclusion if they pass the buck to each other. The only solution to proceed further is a tripartite dialogue involving Pakistan, India, and Kashmiri leaders to resolve the dispute with an eclectic approach inequitable manners.
I had the honor of being invited to the Oklahoma Conference of Churches 2017 Annual Dinner by the Reverend William Tabbernee. This event was held at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, which, to my mind, symbolizes the dynamism of cultures and histories in the American West, was the perfect venue for this event.
I, a Kashmiri Muslim woman, had the pleasure of being seated at the Reverend’s table with Donald Karchmer, President Temple B’nai Israel, Hilary Karchmer, Archbishop Wise, and Margueritte Wise. The conversations and interactions that I had not just with those at my table but with friends in the lobby as well were a reminder that we, despite the polarizing politics in the United States and other parts of the world, retain the empathy and compassion to recognize the aspirations of distinct individuals, societies and variations in religious practices and laws from one cultural context to the other.
The entire evening, the invocation, short speeches by the interfaith award recipients, the keynote address by Rabbi Vered Harris, and the benediction brought home the strength of the human bond that unites us across divides created by cultural and religious fanaticism, globally. The camaraderie exhibited by the dynamic interfaith community in Oklahoma, one of the most conservative states in this country, effectively challenges the political myopia manifested during and post-the 2016 presidential election in the United States.
The rhetoric that we heard during the 2016 presidential campaign and election treated the idea of a multicultural/ multiracial/ multilingual nation as if it were a myth. The interfaith community of Oklahoma and the heartfelt words that I had the pleasure of listening to at the Oklahoma Conference of Churches Annual Dinner yesterday evening wase rightly critical of the folly of homogenizing an entire religion as well as an entire region.
“The sole reason the Oklahoma Conference of Churches exists is to connect, educate, and motivate people of faith to work together in promoting social justice, facilitating interfaith engagement, and providing emotional and spiritual care,” said the Rev. Dr. William Tabbernee, OCC’s executive director. “This is more difficult in the current prevailing ‘culture of fear,’ but by joining together we can defeat bigotry, racism, intolerance, and prejudice, and care for the poor, the disadvantaged, and those affected by natural and human-made disasters. We cannot do this alone–but we can do it together!”
“The event this evening was a powerful reminder that to love is to demand justice and to be merciful. It was also a reminder that the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. Indifference in the face of evil is the same as consent” ~ Michael Korenblit, co-author of Until We Meet Again, and co-founder of the Respect Diversity Foundation.
“Judaism teaches the importance of working with others in the community to achieve social justice. In the Torah, Jews are taught to accept others, without prejudice or bias. In Leviticus 19: verse 17 states, ‘Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.’ Verse 18 goes on to say ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord” ~Don B. Karchmer, President, Temple B’nai Israel.
“The messages of unity, compassion, and acceptance driving these Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and other various worldviews to seek unity is encouraging. But, I left asking whether there are unrecognized ideological barriers within this movement because White Evangelical churches were conspicuously absent. Is it because cultural diversity, social justice, full acceptance, and ‘multiple truths and paths to God’ are antithetical to the truths and morality of some? So the barrier is something more than different opinions on some social issues. Maybe the barrier is primarily political. White evangelical theology is influenced by a political ideology that favors the status-quo of the majority culture. Terms such as inclusion and diversity are seen as an infringement on their rights. If that perception is accurate, I guess it would be a challenge for them to join such a coalition. What about the Oklahoma Conference of Churches? Is there a responsibility that goes beyond connecting to groups where the commonality is more evident? What a wonderful event, but this was on my mind when I left. May Yeshua bless all.” Dwain Pellebon, Ph.D., LCSW-P
I was reminded that faith is much greater than mere dogma or tradition. Faith is the ability to organize and mobilize for social change, which requires the creation of awareness not just at the individual level but at the collective level as well. Faith is the courage to bridge divides and to pave the way for the education of the younger generation, which is the only viable response to ignorance and bigotry. Faith is the openness to diverse opinions, dissent, and differences of opinion, which is true grit. I saw shared consent on the fundamental principles of humanity, compassion, empathy, and open-heartedness, which blurs the divide between “us” and “them.”
The writer is the author of Fiction of Nationality in an Era of Transnationalism, Islam, Women, and Violence in Kashmir, The Life of a Kashmiri Woman, and the editor of The Parchment of Kashmir. Nyla Ali Khan has also served as guest editor working on articles from the Jammu and Kashmir region for Oxford University Press (New York), helping to identify, commission, and review articles
An alarming spurt in violence in early spring has been marked by attacks on civilians by militants, the army using a civilian as a shield against stone-pelters, the lowest ever voter turn-out in a parliamentary by-election and the use of social media as a tool to stoke passion.
These are all indications of bad days ahead for Kashmiris, who were looking forward to a calmer summer in 2017. If this is the bad news, what is even worse is that the situation appears to be slipping out of the hands of both the state and the non-state actors in Kashmir’s sordid drama of pain and suffering.
Inthe Srinagar parliamentary by-poll on 9 April, just seven percent of the voters came out to exercise their franchise. Eight civilian protesters died while trying to ensure the boycott of an election that was otherwise ignored by a vast majority of Kashmiris. The fallout of the unprecedented low voter turnout and violence in Srinagar forced the deferment of the Anantnag by-poll that was scheduled on 12 April. While the Election Commission pushed this to 25 May, all indications on the ground suggest it would have to be deferred to October or beyond.
In other violence, two civilians were killed in the south Kashmir districts of Pulwama and Shopian for their political affiliations.
Bashir Ahmad Dar of Rajpora town in Pulwama was killed on April 15 by gunmen for his affiliation with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while a day later, a young lawyer was killed in Pinjura village of Shopian district for his affiliation with the National Conference (NC).
The young lawyer had served as a public prosecutor during the NC government in the state.
On 16 April, a video clip was uploaded on social media of a trader of Pulwama town denouncing India and begging for his life with guns pointed at him.
In another video from the same district a civilian was seen cursing himself for being an activist of a mainstream political party and vowed never to even look at politics in the future.
The recent “video war” in the Valley started after images of a CRPF trooper being heckled by youths during the April 9 election were uploaded on social media.
This was followed by the video of a youth tied to the front of an army jeep, apparently to avoid attacks from stone-pelters.
Then, massive Valley-wide protests by students broke out on 17 April after videos showing students of Pulwama college being ruthlessly beaten by the security forces were uploaded on social media the previous day.
To prevent the use of social media as a tool to stoke passions, the authorities on Monday again ordered the suspension of mobile internet services in the Valley.
Also, the internet speed of fixed-line broadband connections has been lowered to prevent uploading of videos. Following attacks on the families of policemen, the state police department issued an advisory on 16 April asking its men to exercise extreme caution while visiting their home towns.
On Monday, Amnesty International took serious note of armed groups targeting civilians. The human rights watchdog condemned attacks on civilians for their political affiliations and also on the families of state police force.
The operations of the security forces have been highly compromised by civilian protests while they are on, especially in south Kashmir districts.
Army chief, General Bipin Rawat, visited the state on Sunday. He met Governor NN Vohra in Jammu and then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in New Delhi.
Gen. Rawat has reportedly expressed displeasure against a youth being tied to an army jeep to avoid stone-pelting.
An FIR has been lodged by the state police against the army personnel involved in the act. The opposition NC has demanded dismissal of the PDP-BJP government, accusing it of “Pushing Kashmir into darkness”.
The PDP and BJP leaders have, in turn, accused the NC of having left behind the Aegean Stables of trouble during its long years of of rule. The blame games between the mainstream parties notwithstanding, unless the central and the state governments act fast to pull Kashmir out of its present spiral of anger and violence, 2017 might be worse than what Kashmiris have been through since armed violence started here in the early 1990s.
There is something in air Sorrow,misery,mental distress,death.
Some people are asking for help,
They are yelling for help,
World is watching spectacularly the sight of paradise where six year old is sleeping in grave instead of her mother’s lap,
Where some noisy winds blow in order to wake up the world,
Where everyone in pain is unassisted,
Where people don’t have regrets,
Where Funerals are prayed more than obligatory prayers,
Where people want peace but mourning has become their destiny,
Where beautiful and innocent is saying what is my fault,
Since every power and might exists but no one dares, no one cares to help.
And no one knows when will be the morning of happiness for us. I am Kashmir
A Burning Paradise
Insight on Kashmir 