On  being asked   about the importance of Women’s International Day for Kashmiri Women  by some journalists, I disappointed  them by not giving the usual clichéd and naïve answers, they dropped the phone  because there is apparently no news value  in the  description of the stark reality  which has become the life of a common Kashmiri woman for over two decades. On a day when Kashmiri women have been stifled  indoors and not even allowed to mourn  the death of those who have been killed in the past two weeks, on a day when a sixty year old woman is killed by pepper gas grenade in the premises of her home (which is a routine matter in down town Srinagar and Vermul and Sopore etc), on a day when women are  weeping  and wailing  the death of their loved  ones by the state forces, ‘ the death of every brilliant eye that made a catch in the breath’, on a day when seven cases of rapes are registered in Delhi , at a time when a woman is raped after every two hours, what is there to celebrate on 8th March  except token meetings held by the Govt  to highlight their ‘empty achievements’(when it   should actually  be  mourning  its failure to provide  safe environment  for women  to live and move freely, to be able to go to schools and colleges , workplaces  without the surveillance by the ever present forces in their surroundings.(now CCTVS  are to be installed to  crudely  intervene in their lives in the name of providing security)
The success story of  educated middle class women  over the years in Kashmir has been paralleled  by the  complete objectification and brutalization  of  the grassroots women  in every nook and corner  not only in the  Kashmir  valley but  in  the Chenab and Pirpanchal valleys as well . And this battering and brutalization  has taken place at the hands of those  who are ironically called security forces. Instead of augmenting the dignity   and ensuring  safety and security  of women, they have  acted as  the predators  of their individual integrity  and invaders of their private spaces Since patriarchy is inbuilt within the Indian nationhood, they have carried sexual assaults on women’s  bodies  to inflict  symbolic defeat on the entire community in  Kashmir. The  Patriarchal Indian society considers women as repositories of communal  honour, by violating their  bodies, the state forces   have tried to   humiliate and  politically subjugate    the ‘ ethnic other ‘ in Kashmir  That is what I mean  by objectification of women, reducing them  to the status of abject objects  who  have been used  for  achieving  nefarious political  designs by the State. If there was any room for doubt  of this being so, lo and behold, how the govt reacted to the recommendation of Verma Committee to review AFSPA as it explicitly legitimizes  sexual assault  and molestation of women and undermines women’s fundamental right to life of dignity and safety. By  confessing  that there is no consensus  within the army and political parties on removing it or even reviewing it, the govt has acknowledged  its  moral defeat and  illegitimacy in the state. But  as I have been making this point  that by  making Kashmir the laboratory  for legitimizing  the  supremacy of the security  structure  over the democratic one, it is playing with fire not only  by undermining democracy  and the rule of law but  by  creating a tolerant culture of violence  in the country, as it would not stop in Kashmir but has already percolated down  to every state in India. This  fact  I have come to know through  friends in different states. The mind boggling increase in the incidence of rape and sexual assault  in almost  every part of India, more so in the capital city  seems to have taken its sustenance from Government's unashamedly according blanket immunity to her forces in Kashmir against any prosecution. Because  the society  gets brutalized  as it internalizes this kind of  violent culture  where impunity has been institutionalized   and  sacralized  by army  by calling AFSPA  as an enabling sacred law,  their Bible! What moral authority, then, does  the Government  have to ask people  to shun such violence or make laws  to prevent it? The Government has to seriously ponder over her own contradictions at least to save  women in India  from being battered and brutalized with whom I have  complete  sympathy. We are the ‘ethnic other’, and  Governments in Delhi sustain themselves by preying on us aided and abetted by local Government  as they derive their sustenance from  central  Goernment  rather than from people  in spite of the claims they may make to the contrary. If you had any doubt about it, see the theatre of the absurd being orchestrated in the Assembly over  Afzal’s hanging by both the local parties. They live off on our blood  and brutalization, subjugation and strangulation. They have reconfirmed this policy time and again by their dramatizations in the ‘temple of democracy.’
 However I will be  blind –folded as   an advocate  of  rights if I absolve the community of  her share  in the brutalization  of women. Not only did the non-state actors  try to suffocate women here  but they are also guilty of  killing, raping  and abducting  girls  thereby ending up in the enemy camp. Though, of course, there is no comparison  between the atrocities  committed  by them with those of the forces, yet all the same they did it and this will remain a dark chapter in our history. They also objectified women. They  either killed  them on  the mere suspicion of being informers  or assaulted  them sexually which  I could never understand  except as a sign of  their depravity  and profligacy or  done at the behest of  ‘others’. I have been terribly pained  every time  these brutal acts have been  carried out  by our own people to settle different scores or oppressing girls   while  trying to impose a dress code on them like Taliban   who    tribalized  Islam  by  justifying  cruel and callous  tribal practices  against women.
Then there is  the incidence of domestic violence which has been further  exacerbated  by militarization.  Because a besieged masculinity  in Kashmir has been exerting greater control  over women  in the domestic space. Even though domestic violence is rampant every where yet as followers of   Islam our community has been no different   in inflicting  physical, psychological, verbal  and mental violence on women  on a daily basis. In spite of the fact that our Beloved Prophet  (SAW) has warned men against  treating their women  as less than human and is Himself the finest example  of  being the most beneficent, compassionate and  loving husband  by recognizing  the  equal status of His life partners, a doting father  and  respectful to all  women. Mind you this respect  and love He did not give as a  concession  to women  or as a reward for getting some services from them but as an acknowledgement of their  basic  equal human status. Mash’allah! Our men in Kashmir are ever ready to die for the love of Prophet (SAW)  if  any base person commits blasphemy  against Him or celebrate His birth day  every year  with all devotion and love by   lighting candles  on this  occasion  for days together  yet most of them  are found wanting when it comes to accepting the equal human status of women as insisted on by the Prophet and treating them as that in their lives. The most distinguishing feature of our Beloved Prophet (SAW) was  His kindness and concern for women so much so that He made the struggle for their human status and  rights an essential part of His mission of transforming the society  in terms of his divine vision  on the solid  basis  of justice and equality for all human beings. Had there not been the burden of history on our   shoulders and its concomitant imponderable  baggage  which consumes us all the time, I would have made it  the sole mission of my life  as I have said before, to actualize the  Prophet's vision  of a humane  society  where women could enjoy  absolute   safety  dignity and human status    which could then be replicated every where wherever  women are repressed and subjugated. Muslim men today have  the golden opportunity  to deconstruct  the Western construct of ‘Muslim women as repressed , discriminated and segregated' with concrete evidence  to throw back the slander on their faces.
So what does international women's day mean to us? It only reminds  us  how far we are from  achieving the  goal of  restructuring society  along the lines of  justice and equality for all on the one hand  and decolonization  from political repression on the other, which has doubly colonized  women in our part of the world.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 9 Mar 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 9 Mar 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 10 Mar 2013 00:00:00 IST