Can You Hear Kashmiri Women Speak? Narratives of Resistance and Resilience

Kashmir is hypervisible and enormously powerful in the contemporary Indian imaginary, and can be made to carry different political meanings and messages. The terms Kashmiri Pandit, Kashmiri Muslim, Kashmiri men and Kashmiri women, when used in public discourse perform distinct functions. This volume initiates the reader into a complex understanding of Kashmiri women’s life-worlds, in the context of protracted civil conflict and military occupation. The women here speak and write about the aftermath of the shocking abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019; of spectacles and street protests in the Valley; of women’s companionship and female alliances; and of the literature of resistance. They analyse the links between gender, militarism and militarisation; and between violence, women’s livelihoods, and environmental destruction. Forced into surrendering their rights and their autonomy, the Kashmiri women in this first-of-its-kind anthology shatter the silence and speak truth to power and to society.