Resistance of Women Against Indian Illegal Occupation of Jammu and Kashmir: Their Invisibility During Peace Negotiations

Abstract

Kashmiri female freedom fighters have remained at the forefront of the resistance movement, rallies, protest marches, and sit-ins. Unfortunately, their activism is invisible, and they have lagged during the dialogue process. The peace negotiations go awry to address the concerns, specific needs, approaches, views, and grievances of women during and after conflict situations. The UN has long been trying to address the concerns of women through varied resolutions, but the implementation of these mandates remains a formidable challenge. This research paper, therefore, aims to analyse the resistance and activism of Kashmiri women for their inalienable right of self-determination against the Indian Illegal Occupation of Jammu and Kashmir. The problem of Kashmiri women’s visibility in the resistance movement and their invisibility in the peace process is seen through the theoretical framework of Feminist Security Studies. For the textual interpretation and contextualization of data, Qualitative Content Analysis is employed. A way forward to address women’s issues and approaches during conflict situations is to implement the UN landmark Resolution-1325 on ‘Women, Peace, and Security’ by involving women in all stages of conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction.
 
 Bibliography Entry
 Raazia, Izzat, and Saqib ur Rehman. 2021. "Resistance of Women against Indian Illegal Occupation of Jammu and Kashmir: Their Invisibility during Peace Negotiations." Margalla Papers 25 (1): 92-102.

Kashmiri women in conflict: a feminist perspective

“…Various researchers have investigated the Kashmir conflict; however, only a few have espoused to approach the issue from a feminist perspective (Cherukuri, 2021;Kaul, 2018Kaul, , 2022Mehdi, 2021;Mushtaq, 2022Mushtaq, , 2023Parashar, 2009;Raazia and Rehman, 2021;Ray, 2009;D. Sharma, 2023;Zia, 2016).…”

“…Kashmiri women have periodically demonstrated in the streets against the Indian army's violations of their human rights (Whitehead, 2022). Raazia and Rehman (2021) recognized that male political elites both lead and represent Kashmiri women. Although Kashmiri women are still expected to stay in their private lives, they have stepped out of their conventional roles as mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives in order to assist and encourage their male family members.…”

“…Although Kashmiri women may not have taken a direct part in militancy, they have helped financially and logistically by distributing ammunition, influencing security force personnel to keep an eye on their operations, and more. Kashmiri women became facilitators by delivering weapons, informing militants, giving them food and shelter, and assisting them in evading capture during the frequent and terrifying raids by the Indian military (Aaliya, 2011;Raazia and Rehman, 2021;Ramachandran and Jabbar, 2003). According to Ray (2009), Muslim women's organizations like DeM have fought to rally women in their favor while providing haven to militants, the exact men who were the main cause of women's suffering in society.…”

“…Gender sensitivity toward women's involvement in peace politics can make the peace process more comprehensive and sustainable. Kashmiri women need to play a more vivid and active role in conflict resolution, but regrettably, they are sidelined, underrepresented, and unseen during discussions and the peace-making process (Raazia and Rehman, 2021). Kazi (2014) reported the same conclusion that equal participation of women and addressing their issues were indispensable to any effort or initiative taken to resolve the Kashmir conflict.…”

A Historical and Political Analysis of Kashmir Conflict: From Past to Present

“…It is considered that women's bodies belong not only to themselves but the whole community and attacking their bodies signifies demoralizing the entire community. Raping women has become a strategic weapon of war by the Indian security personnel with impunity (Raazia, 2020;Raazia & Rehman, 2021). The scale, speed and intensity of violence have been increased to crush their right to sovereignty through mass detentions, countermilitancy operations, repressing their rights, rape, extra-judicial killings, fake encounters, mass and unmarked graves and disappearances.…”