SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN KASHMIR

 

A CRIME OF WAR

Large scale usage of violence in Jammu and Kashmir has been a persistent and dominant feature of India's imperial state policy. The consequences and impacts of this reckless state-violence on the Kashmiri society, politics and culture has been vastly underestimated. Particularly, sexual violence being leveraged as a weapon of war by the Indian forces in the region has been grossly overlooked at the international level despite growing awareness of urgent need to empower women in the conflict-hit areas such as Kashmir where prolonged Indian military occupation, massive troop buildup and sprawling military camps stretched across cities, towns and villages had created a fertile ground for violence against the women. Being a vulnerable part of the society, the Kashmiri women have, unfortunately, been the worst victims of this long-drawn unresolved dispute that has left behind a harrowing legacy in the person of rape-victims, widows and half widows.  The continued conflict, bloodshed and violence have shattered the life of women so much and so that today thirty-six percent of women in the troubled region suffer anxiety disorder.

Caught in a whirlwind of violence and uncertainty, life of a Kashmiri woman, as a mother, daughter, sister and a wife has been adversely affected during the years of turmoil. Many of them have been widowed, displaced, molested, gang-raped, and even brutally tortured, harassed and humiliated in jails and interrogation centers. Besides bearing the brunt of violence a good majority of Kashmiri women have lost their kith and kin during the ongoing conflict. According to the officials figures more than 50,000 people were killed in violence but Independent sources put the death toll at over 100 thousand. Of them a sizable number of Kashmiri youth have been subjected to extra-judicial killing.

It has also been estimated that around 50,000 women have lost their partners. Rights groups engaged in documenting enforced disappearances in Kashmir since 1989 have revealed that more than 10,000 people have disappeared in Kashmir as a result of violence, which diametrically varies from the official figures put forth by the government of India.

Rape, outrage of modesty and other forms of violence against women has been one of the deadly aspects of the long drawn conflict that has inexpressibly shattered the lives of women living under a constant threat of rape and sexual assault from the Indian army.

Rights defenders have time and again raised their concerns over the rising incidents of violence in the restive region and demanded immediate end to war crimes. The rights activists who had investigated incidents of abuse in Kashmir established the bitter truth that the so-called Indian security forces were using sexual violence against women as a weapon of war to punish, intimidate, coerce, humiliate and degrade the women folk.

The mass-rape of scores of women in Kunan Poshpora village in Handwara in 1991 by the Indian occupation forces and rape and murders case of Shopian, and Islamabad (Annantnag) serve as the most shocking example of nightmarish ordeal of the Kashmiri women.

Since the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been a no-go-zone for international human rights watchdogs it is difficult to ascertain reliable statistics on rape in Kashmir and the intensity of violence women of Kashmir have gone through over the years but existing evidence suggest that this shameful practice (sexual violence), which amounts to war crime is frequent and widespread. In a statement in Kashmir’s Legislative Assembly in October 2013, then Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah admitted to registering more than 5000 cases of rape since 1989.

 A report based on women’s testimonies from the Kashmir Valley confirmed that women were brutally targeted by security forces. Most rape cases, according to the same report, have occurred during cordon-and-search operations According to a 1996 HRW report, security personnel in Kashmir have used "rape as a counterinsurgency tactic". Inger Skjelsbæk a Norwegian psychologist and gender studies scholar says that the pattern of rape in Kashmir is that when soldiers enter civilian residences, they kill or evict the men before raping the women inside.

The Conflict has affected the women folk in Kashmir in many different ways. Besides causing severe disruption in their education, job opportunities, and overall development the ongoing conflict has taken a heavy toll, wreaking havoc on women’s physical and mental health. As a result, there has been a phenomenal increase in psychiatric morbidity due to the continued conflict in the region while on the other hand the sense of insecurity is greater among girls and young women who have become virtual prisoners in their own houses because of the continued threat of abduction and sexual abuse from the Indian army found present at every nook, corner and cranny of the state.

The 15-month long military clampdown and information blockade imposed on Kashmir by the government of India on 5^th August 2019 has further added to the miseries of Kashmiri women. Nusrat Sidiq, a Kashmir-based journalist covering human rights issues says that years of conflict have already fuelled alarming levels of untreated mental illness in Kashmir but the months’ long crippling clampdown is adding to civilian trauma in the disputed region.

A study published by IMHANS and ActionAid has also confirmed an alarming increase in levels of mental health disorders in the population of Kashmir. The survey says that 11.3% of the respondents in the valley were suffering from a mental health disorder which is significantly higher than the Indian “national average”. Another detailed report released by MSF Doctors without Borders on mental health in Kashmir, concluded that half of all residents of the valley have "mental health problems.  It stated that 50 percent of women and 37 percent of men are likely to suffer from depression; 36 percent of women and 21 percent of men have a probable anxiety disorder; and 22 percent of women and 18 percent of men suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The report was the third of its kind on mental health carried out by MSF.

A team of 5 women who visited Kashmir soon after the Indian government stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status, last year, narrated a spine chilling account of the horrible situation in Kashmir. The report titled “Women’s voice: A Fact Finding Report on Kashmir”, said, “The humiliation and torture they have suffered for 70 years has reached a point of no return”. Referring to overwhelming levels of stress and fear in the society the report said that the situation in the region was so grim that the women are delivering babies prematurely due to the stress and (fear) in the present condition. Quoting a senior doctor from North Kashmir the report further said that there was alarming uptick in mental disorders and heart attacks.

The irony of Kashmiri Half-widows is yet another highly disconcerting aspect of this conflict that has given rise to a category of women known as “half-widows” whose number has swelled to over thousands during the recent years. They are the ones who went through more pain and agony than other women whose near and dear ones have fallen to the bullets of the Indian army. Caught in a cobweb of uncertainty this ill-fated lot of Kashmiri women named after as Half-widows are forced to live even a more painful, agonizing and excruciating life as there seems no end to their nerve-wracking struggle of tracing their husbands who have been subjected to forced disappearances by the army.

Despite growing awareness of urgent need to end sexual violence, empower women in conflict zones, Kashmiri women continue to suffer the worst consequences of violence and abuse of power by the Indian security forces. Being the most vulnerable segment of the society, they (Women) continue to be the primary victims of large‑scale systematic sexual violence being unabashedly used by India as a war-tactic. 

According to data collected by a Kashmiri News gathering agency, over 11, 000 Kashmiri women have been molested or gang-raped, nearly 23 thousand women widowed whereas 107,805 children had been rendered orphaned since 1989. There are thousands of instances of sexual violence having been used by Indian army as a tactic to instill fear among the Kashmiri society but these cases go unreported in the media due to the social stigma attached to it.

 The book in hand gives a brief account of heart-wrenching incidents of sexual violence against women in Kashmir. The horrific tales of terror stories we have been able to produce so far are just the tip of the iceberg.