Arfat Shiekh Blurred Hope is a short film about women in the Indian occupied Kashmir who have lost their sons, husbands, and brothers through enforced disappearances between 1989 and 2006. I took the inspiration for the film from an organization known as the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) … Read more →
Zanaan Wanaan release Kashmiri Bella Ciao
New Beginnings, Radical Possibilities Kashmir Lit (KL): What invoked you to adopt this anthem for Kashmir? Please tell us its significance? Zanaan Wanaan (ZW): As the Indian state stripped Kashmir of its partial autonomy on the 5th August by abrogating Article 370 and imposed an arbitrary communications ban, those … Read more →
2018 Annual Kashmiri Women’s Resistance Day
By: Kashmir Lit Editorial Desk, 23 February 2018, 12 am Every year since 2014, 23rd February is observed as Kashmiri Women’s Resistance Day. This day commemorates the survivors of the mass rape and torture in the two villages of Kunan and Poshpora in the part of Kashmir which is administered … Read more →
Kashmir: A look at the Kunan Poshpora rapes
by Urvashi Sarkar Twenty-five years have passed since the 1991 incident in which Indian army soldiers allegedly raped between 23 and 100 women in Kashmir’s Kunan and Poshpora villages during a search operation. The Indian army has denied the accusations and a delayed investigation of the incident concluded that the allegations … Read more →
Kashmir’s Women Scientists
Majid Maqbool Hina Fayaz Bhat, 31, is currently an assistant professor and junior scientist in the biotechnology division, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST), Srinagar. In 2013, she was the first woman scientist from the state to qualify for the Department of Science and Technology’s (DST’s) INSPIRE faculty award … Read more →
Few Vignettes: Kashmiri Women Act during the 2014 Floods
Lubna Reshi From dawn to dusk – determined to be of some help to the stranded people – Maham would every day set out to float on gushing flood water on an inflated boat. As water ravaged the city of Srinagar on September 7, Maham, 21, decided not to put up … Read more →
Kashmiri women photographers document Kashmir
Majid Maqbool Five young, promising Kashmiri woman photographers, all in their twenties, talk about what makes them pick up the camera, go out, and click images, against all the odds. They also point out the difficulties they encounter while working in the field, the societal bias, and why there’s a … Read more →
Parveena Ahangar’s Rafto Acceptance Speech
The Text of the lecture that Parveena Ahangar of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) delivered at The 2017 Rafto Conference at Bergen, Norway. To, the Rafto Foundation, Sisters & Brothers, Friends, and the International Human Rights Community, A Salaam Aleikum My heartfelt thanks to the Rafto … Read more →
A view of the Women’s War in Kashmir
By Shazia Yousuf The soldiers had just left and my grandmother’s house looked battered and bruised. Cupboards and chests lay open like fresh wounds, bleeding secrets of the family that were neatly kept between books and folded clothes. It was a crackdown, a routine search operation that Indian soldiers carried out … Read more →
This Is How Kashmiri Women Are Risking Their Lives
April 6, 2017, 4:30 PM ET Republished transcript of an Interview with Arooja (name changed) a Kashmiri woman on NPR’s All Things Considered JULIE MCCARTHY Some residents of the Indian-administered Kashmir Valley are using more aggressive tactics to thwart Indian security forces: Women are placing themselves, literally, between militants and soldiers. KELLY … Read more →
Stories of Kashmir’s Women
Kashmiri writer-journalist Majid Maqbool spoke to Freny Manecksha about her new book that focuses on the women of the valley and their struggles with life in a place that is constantly at war Freny Manecksha first visited Kashmir in October 2010 and kept returning to the valley every year since. … Read more →
When the army men hanged my panties, bras on the wall hooks, littered my sanitary pads…
Sara Ahmad In the year 2006, I would always wake up early in the morning to prepare for my competitive exams. I would leave the bed every day at 6 am. Before opening the books, I would lazily stand near the window of my room to see the happenings outside. … Read more →
Enforced Disappearance of a young Kashmiri woman
Raqib Hameed Naik Doda (Jammu and Kashmir): Inside the dilapidated single story mud house with wood and polyethene sheets covering the roof, Ghulam Mohammad Butt, 88 opens his steel trunk and brings out an old, torn newspaper. Flipping all the pages, he stops at the last and keeps gazing at the … Read more →
Kashmiri Women Resist the Indian Occupation
Tamaam Majjin Benin che appeal yewan karneh ki tem nyeran sadki peth dharna dineh [We appeal all mothers and sisters to come into the street and stage a dharna] Ather Zia The selective outrage on part of some Kashmiri men about the girls protesting on the streets is contrary to … Read more →
Courage lies in the hearts of Kashmiri women who dream of freedom
Mahum Shabir We stop, first at Nowpora. A crowd of boys is gathered. They could be pelting stones at the police vehicles in the distance but it is hard to see things clearly. Miniature clouds from tear-smoke shelling hang mid-air like monuments of ether. We veer off the highway into a … Read more →
Behold, I Shine: Narratives of Kashmir’s Women and Children
Freny Manecksha Book Excerpt: Chapter “I Can Save Myself: Dissent and Feminism in a New Millenium” The challenging male diktats on morality is extended to conversations around religion. In a lengthy conversation, Essar remarked how men simply assume they are the thekedars of what is right or wrong and she was … Read more →
A Historical Overview of Kashmiri Women in Politics & Resistance
Dr Shazia Malik The women of Kashmir played a conspicuous role in the struggle against the Dogra rule. In a meeting at Khanqa-he-Maula, one Abdul Qadeer, a non-Kashmiri Muslim who was in Srinagar came on the stage and said “we do not have guns, but we have plenty of stones … Read more →
Kashmiri War Mothers Find Ways to Grieve
By Shazia Yousuf When I met Taja Begum in the winter of 2009, I could tell she was dying soon. Taja, 75, was skin and bones. Every time she spoke, her trembling hands went up to soothe her tired chest. She took little sips of hot water in between long … Read more →
Tribute to Atiqa Bano: Preserving Kashmir’s Cultural Heritage
Majid Maqbool The curator of Kashmir’s sole private museum wanted the current generation to witness, experience and relate to their past through the rich history preserved in rare artifacts and objects. Atiqa Bano, a renowned educationist, heritage activist and curator of Kashmir’s first and only private museum, Meeras Mahal, passed away on October … Read more →
The Woman who is preserving the treasure of Kashmiri culture
Muzamil Bashir Located around 65 kilometers from Srinagar, Chinkipora village in North Kashmir’s Sopore town has a remarkable feature which has remained unnoticed by all that is the ‘Meeras Mahal’ Museum, which captures and preserves Kashmir’s heritage, artifacts and traditions in a beautiful way. The museum was established in 2001 … Read more →
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