What it means to be a woman in Kashmir

Writers, according to Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, have certain mannerisms — first to visualise a scene, then to write it in words that evoke the same image in the reader. He emphasised that writing should be diverse and portray the body not as a whole, but a combination of different parts.

Kashmir’s literary tradition, however, has been “one-dimensional”, to paraphrase Habermas, as the region’s political identity often overshadows its diverse cultural traditions, reducing its rich literary heritage to a singular narrative. This singular political identity weighs heavily on popular writings, which began to give more space to themes such as conflict, power, and violence — themes that are inherently masculinist.

Mirza Waheed’s ‘The Collaborator’ and Basharat Peer’s ‘Curfewed Night’, two internationally-acclaimed works from the 1990s, narrativise this masculinist way of thinking, as the protagonists in both books are men caught in the midst of turmoil and war.

Komal Singh, a Kashmiri Sikh academic and researcher, says, “When you see Kashmir writings, women’s perspective is also written and told in a particular way. Women in relation to men, women in relation to violence, being mothers, wives and so on. That’s not the full picture of women’s experience, it needs to be broadened.” However, over the years, the literary space in Kashmir has become more diverse and multifaceted. Women writers and poets are gaining recognition, bringing stories that break stereotypes and highlight the many experiences of women in the Valley.

Shahnaz Bashir’s ‘The Half Mother’ marked a significant intervention toward a more egalitarian mode of storytelling. Her protagonist, Halima, illustrates how the richness of writing about Kashmir lies in being sensitive to women’s perspectives while portraying pain, suffering, and grief — because, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes, “grief is a woman’s way of expressing loss”.

Mehak Jamal, whose book ‘Loal Kashmir: Love and Longing in a Torn Land’ documents the tenderness of love and longing, believes that writing should be diverse and inclusive. She says, “The documentation of any place requires varied perspectives to truly understand it. When we speak about Kashmir — and specifically the stories told by Kashmiris about the place, people, and the conflict — gender and sexuality are important facets to consider. There are many spaces (physical and otherwise) that women, queer, and non-binary people from Kashmir inhabit and exist in, which their counterparts do not, and vice versa. Being able to tell stories from their personal and shared experiences, and those of people who feel comfortable opening up to them, is essential in writing the story of Kashmir. Not only does it help de-invisibilise people whose stories are just as crucial to tell, it is also imperative in creating a complete picture.”

Farah Bashir’s ‘Rumours of Spring: A Girlhood in Kashmir’, Nitasha Kaul’s ‘Residue’, Neerja Mattoo’s ‘The Mystic and The Lyric’, Essar Batool’s ‘Do You Remember Kunanposhpora’, and more recent works like Sadaf Wani’s ‘City as Memory’ and ‘Loal Kashmir’ break the barriers of gender and identity while documenting the pain and suffering of ordinary people — particularly women.

These writers have profoundly explored the complexities of conflict and life from a gendered perspective. Reflecting on the changing nature of popular writing, visual artist and illustrator Basita Shah says, “I’ve been deeply moved by the way contemporary writing is increasingly rooted in personal and collective memory — a kind of storytelling that is intimate, raw, and often shaped by the experience of living in a conflicted zone. I have tremendous respect for the courage it takes to write so openly — especially when something as fundamental and human as memory or personal narrative is subject to surveillance and censorship. That act of writing thus becomes not just literary, but radical.”

Basita’s work explores themes of memory and personal conflict within the broader context of socio-political unrest.

For decades, women in Kashmir carried the weight of untold stories and quiet resistance. Contemporary women writers offer an alternative account of the erasure of agency and the eclipse of women from public discourse. Their work reveals the often-concealed realities of women in families, workplaces, media, shedding light on how power and misogyny are deeply intertwined, how the public and private spheres are interconnected, and how women continually navigate the binary between agency and conformity to established norms.

“I feel there is a lack of cross-community engagement among women on various issues. Not all women share the same experience of living in Kashmir, and I believe it is important to have deep, meaningful conversations between women from different communities to learn from each other’s experiences,” emphasises Komal Singh.

— The writer is an academic based in Kashmir

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