By Shabeer Rather
Respectfully and humbly, I would like to bring in your kind notice that is the duty of every individual to highlight and to fight against the violations of women’s rights, harassment, molestation etc.
And, I would like to THANK YOU for showing your kind concern about the women’s rights in my motherland Kashmir. But,
I, as a young Kashmiri have issues the way you are portraying it. Most of you are from India or from Kashmir living in India or other parts of the world. Keeping in mind the increase in number of rapes in India with every passing day, I understand how its influence be on humanity and literally, such a heinous crime is intolerable in all ways.
Believe me, the situation here in Kashmir is 180¡ã (anti-parallel) to what is happening in India. The case of Kashmir is totally different than India when we talk about the women’s rights violations. Is there anything more painful for a woman than rape? Off course not.
I believe that molestation is the highest degree of women abuse or her rights violation .Rape is more than death for her.
Respected authors, I know the situation in India is very critical. The rapes or molestation happen almost every minute.
Here are the reports I read through some news portals
”In India a women is reportedly raped every 15 minutes, multiply that by 24×7, 365 days a year, and keep in mind the majority of rape cases still go unreported. The statistics on crime against women is even worse: Every 2 minutes, a women in India is a victim of a crime. This ongoing issue with violence against women raises the real and serious question of whether India is truly ready for a seat on the global table.”
(The Daily beast)
“At least 34,651 cases of rape were reported across India in 2015, statistics released by the country’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) have revealed.
The figures, released , showed that victims ranged from female children younger than six years old to women over 60 years, with those aged between 18 and 30 reporting the largest number of rape attacks – totaling almost 17,000.”
(Al-jazeera)
From 2006 to 2013 there are around 1300 rape cases reported in Kashmir.
(The miligazatte reported in 2013).
When I search the `rapes in Kashmir` via google, I found like kunan-poshpora rape case, Asiya- Nelofer rape case etc. by Indian forces. What I mean is that women are safest here in Kashmir (if they don’t fall prey to Indian forces).In Kashmir women from any part of the World can move freely and safely. There is no fear of being raped or molested. We Kashmiri’s even consider OPTICAL MOLESTATION (self generated term which mean to see some women with evil in mind)a sin.
For your kind information women here do are on equal footing to men. They drive scootees , cars , bikes etc. They drive out of there choices .Some drive wearing hijab , some without hijab .The women here do jobs too. There are almost equal number of men and women in the offices.
Respected authors, I do the comparison between the crimes against women in India and Kashmir just to put my opinion, rather To make it clear that the women are safer in our culture and in our ways of living . If you seriously care about the women’s rights suggest your fellow countrymen to let us free, to let us live the way we want. If you want to get rid of this rape trend in India too, let you follow kashmiri culture. And kindly stop portraying the way you are portraying the women empowerment. For those authors who are from Kashmir, I suggest to introspect. May I ask you what do you seriously mean by women empowerment? Do you want us to wait for the same situation going in India Rapes and rapes molestation and molestation.Some articles I read
were written by some respected female writers ,for them I would like to say that the freedom of women certainly doesn’t mean the way you think.Everyone has its own perception and opinion.We must respect each others opinion and perception. You cant conclude the way you live or prefer to live is better for all women.
The cultural agression and religious agression are different than women empowerment.
Let me conclude by the sayings of Iqbal and jawharlal Nehru:
”I lead no party; I follow no leader. I have given the best part of my life to careful study of Islam, its law and polity, its culture, its history and its literature.” (Iqbal)
Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit-Jawaharlal Nehru
(The author is student activist (coordinator at All Jammu and Kashmir students union and can be reached at: shabeee121@gmail.com)
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