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https://thediplomat.com/2022/02/rape-and-silence-in-kashmirs-jihad/
"Editor’s note: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault that readers may find disturbing.
SRINAGAR – “After a point, all I begged of them was not to take me on the cold, hard floor – my back couldn’t take it, and the unborn baby in me would die, I told them. But they didn’t listen.”
Fatima had sobbed softly through most of her interview. She spoke barely louder than the slow cold breeze rustling the dried chinar outside the spare room we were sitting in.
But it was at this point that her crying turned to a helpless childlike wailing. Her large wet eyes darted from me to the translator and the women in the crew – turn by turn – silently asking if we were registering the injustice done to her.
“Is this jihad? Is this their piety?” she added, a note of anger entering the monotone of despair….
Data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau shows that the number of cases of violence against women in Jammu and Kashmir increased by 11 percent in 2020, from 3,069 in 2019 to 3,414 the next year – even while the national rate fell by 8.3 percent during the same period.
In 2020, 1,744 cases of “assault on women with the intent to violate her modesty,” as well as 243 cases of rape, were reported.
Given the low reporting rate and the shroud of violent shame and social boycott that accompanies rape – especially in a society as conservative and patriarchal as Kashmir – the real numbers are likely to be significantly higher….
“Where big violence is so common, it is no surprise that gender violence is hardly a priority issue,” explained Mantasha Rashid, founder of Kashmir Women’s Collective, a trust that provides support under a single window to survivors of gender-based violence.
“The rape and assault you’re referring to is akin to collateral damage. Women are caught in the crossfire in any conflict region, and the body of the enemy’s woman is seen as war booty by all the warring sides.”
The point about women being viewed as “war booty” to be plundered by the victor is evident in Bismah’s story.
“We were all home, the night the militants picked my husband up and killed him,” Bismah recounted from the night her husband – a driver – was murdered on suspicion of being an informer.
“Immediately after killing him, they took me forcibly. I was violated in every possible way… just unspeakable amounts of torture and humiliation.”
“The killing of my husband wasn’t vengeance enough,” she said. The first gang rape wasn’t either. “My torture continued for years after. The nightmare that started at 18 continued till I was 27.”
Beyond the overly conservative society that makes rapes the victim’s burden to bear, what compounds the problem in Kashmir is the political inconvenience of acknowledging rape and assault committed by the keepers of faith and upholders of the Shariah.
In the 1990s, when militancy in its current form first took shape, the jihad in Kashmir was seen as a popular movement seeking freedom from the Indian state. Women were encouraged to help the militants by playing supportive roles: cooking, cleaning, and offering shelter and comfort to those who fought the righteous battle.
Several radical political leaders of Kashmir have called upon women to give their bodies to the men who fight the holy war, becoming proud wives and mothers of the militants. Movements like the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, led by women, have called for harsh Shariah to be implemented and meted out beatings to women for not sticking to dress codes and yardsticks of religious morality….
"Editor’s note: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault that readers may find disturbing.
SRINAGAR – “After a point, all I begged of them was not to take me on the cold, hard floor – my back couldn’t take it, and the unborn baby in me would die, I told them. But they didn’t listen.”
Fatima had sobbed softly through most of her interview. She spoke barely louder than the slow cold breeze rustling the dried chinar outside the spare room we were sitting in.
But it was at this point that her crying turned to a helpless childlike wailing. Her large wet eyes darted from me to the translator and the women in the crew – turn by turn – silently asking if we were registering the injustice done to her.
“Is this jihad? Is this their piety?” she added, a note of anger entering the monotone of despair….
Data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau shows that the number of cases of violence against women in Jammu and Kashmir increased by 11 percent in 2020, from 3,069 in 2019 to 3,414 the next year – even while the national rate fell by 8.3 percent during the same period.
In 2020, 1,744 cases of “assault on women with the intent to violate her modesty,” as well as 243 cases of rape, were reported.
Given the low reporting rate and the shroud of violent shame and social boycott that accompanies rape – especially in a society as conservative and patriarchal as Kashmir – the real numbers are likely to be significantly higher….
“Where big violence is so common, it is no surprise that gender violence is hardly a priority issue,” explained Mantasha Rashid, founder of Kashmir Women’s Collective, a trust that provides support under a single window to survivors of gender-based violence.
“The rape and assault you’re referring to is akin to collateral damage. Women are caught in the crossfire in any conflict region, and the body of the enemy’s woman is seen as war booty by all the warring sides.”
The point about women being viewed as “war booty” to be plundered by the victor is evident in Bismah’s story.
“We were all home, the night the militants picked my husband up and killed him,” Bismah recounted from the night her husband – a driver – was murdered on suspicion of being an informer.
“Immediately after killing him, they took me forcibly. I was violated in every possible way… just unspeakable amounts of torture and humiliation.”
“The killing of my husband wasn’t vengeance enough,” she said. The first gang rape wasn’t either. “My torture continued for years after. The nightmare that started at 18 continued till I was 27.”
Beyond the overly conservative society that makes rapes the victim’s burden to bear, what compounds the problem in Kashmir is the political inconvenience of acknowledging rape and assault committed by the keepers of faith and upholders of the Shariah.
In the 1990s, when militancy in its current form first took shape, the jihad in Kashmir was seen as a popular movement seeking freedom from the Indian state. Women were encouraged to help the militants by playing supportive roles: cooking, cleaning, and offering shelter and comfort to those who fought the righteous battle.
Several radical political leaders of Kashmir have called upon women to give their bodies to the men who fight the holy war, becoming proud wives and mothers of the militants. Movements like the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, led by women, have called for harsh Shariah to be implemented and meted out beatings to women for not sticking to dress codes and yardsticks of religious morality….
