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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →