Girls stand for change in Kashmir

When she finished her college, Faiz Adiba, 27, promised herself to stand for change in the conflict-ridden Valley.

Adiba, who did her bachelors in mass communication from Kashmir University, moved to Delhi to pursue her dream of working in public relations f (PR) field  from 2010, the year more than 100 youth were killed during street protests. However, convincing her parents and relatives that she would work in an unfamiliar place like Delhi and work in a PR company wasn’t an easy job for her.

“I don’t think it was a difficult decision for me as I was very clear about my career. My relatives were against my decision to move out for a job. But my father stood by me and today he is proud of my achievements,” Adiba told Deccan Herald. From 2008 to 2010 stone-pelting, strikes and curfew were a routine in Kashmir and this made Adiba to think of moving out. “Life was quite dull when I was in college. Once in 2008 we were caught in the hostel for several days due to curfew and unrest. We had no information about our families,” she said.

Asked how she feels working in a metropolitan city, Adiba, who is with a leading PR agency, said, “I do not find any difference. Whether I am living in Delhi or Srinagar, I would have lived my life the way I am living. I handle clients within and outside the country.” 

Zehra Shafi, who grew up during peak of insurgency in Kashmir, also had to move to Delhi to pursue her dream. “When I finished my master’s degree in journalism, my only hope to pursue my career was to move out. Due to the lack of knowledge and access to modern amenities I lagged far behind  the women living in other parts of the country and abroad. But in Delhi I have equal opportunities to work and prosper,” she told Deccan Herald.

Like most of the girls of her age, it was a difficult decision for Zehra to move out from Kashmir and work in journalism field. However, 4 years down the line, Zehra says she is content with her decision.  “Initially my family was reluctant to allow me to move out. Even when I chose journalism, they wanted me to pursue some degree where I could find a government job in Kashmir only. But my passion and love for journalism was so intense that my father gave me all support,” Zehra, who works with a news portal in Delhi, said.

“There is an inspiration which one does follow and it makes him/her restless till she/he gets it. My intention to  become a journalist was from the very beginning when I would watch BBC women correspondents working out there in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. It was adventurous to see those women amid men covering events of much significance,” she adds.

During the last more than two and a half decades of conflict in Kashmir, women have been the worst sufferers. The story of a woman in this part of the world is a woeful tale.
In the events that unfolded, it was her son who disappeared in thin air, her husband who was killed in “cold blood” in a “fake encounter”, her octogenarian father who was “labelled as a militant” and at the top of this vista – she herself, who was unsuccessful in finding light at the end of the tunnel. However, after living throughout conflict and witnessing events of grave political and social change, this next generation of women in Kashmir believe they are free and need education to heralding a revolution.

Asked what sort of revolution they were craving for? A revolution of ideas and innovations, they say. Even in Kashmir women are now working in male-dominated fields and trying to prove that they are not lagging behind in any way. “The rights males have, I too have. My parents do not distinguish between me and my brother. We are being treated equally and given chance to study and live,” says Shazia, a school teacher.

However, she says, what makes Kashmir a far-flung area in the eyes of others is that we have not fully explored it yet and people are oblivious of that. “Women must stand for change and seek their rights,” Shazia adds. Asked whether working in conservative society like Kashmir was safe for girls, she said, “Well as far as living in other parts of the country in concerned, I do not think I would have been safe in Delhi or any other state; Kashmir is the best place in that case. Change can only happen when women are strong and courageous.”

From Shazia’s standpoint, some girls provide counter opinions, saying Kashmir is still a male-dominated and a conservative society.  Rahiba, 23, is a 3rd semester social science student at Kashmir University. She says women in Kashmir are marginalised and the ratio of men in every field is higher than women. 

“Kashmir has a conservative background but women here are more talented than anywhere else. And what they lack is support. Women here are not supposed to work and go for higher education; they in turn are told to get married,” she says. Now girls in Kashmir study medicine, engineering, arts and journalism; and stand for change for a better and happier future. Some have already carved niche for themselves.

Farzana Gulzar, who has  been teaching management at Kashmir University for the last 10 years, was the first girl from Kashmir to clear National Eligibility Test in management studies. Farzana taught for two years at the Institute of Management, Public Administration before moving to the university. Now,  she is a  visiting faculty at the institute and teaches management skills to civil servant trainees.