Thread
Indian army's war against Kashmiri women.
On a cold night in mid-Sept last year, Haseena*,her teenage son, and her daughter were asleep when Indian forces stormed the house, breaking down the door & shattering their windows.
https://womensmediacenter.com/women-under-siege/security-forces-target-women-with-impunity-during-kashmir-crackdown?fbclid=IwAR2Vs30dz-sQPJllhg1By92KqjFw1Z7ukTf08AkAvla8oWSdkoBqO00xYQ8#.Xs-RK32IgVg.twitter

They were looking for her son.
“It was dark and my heart was sinking,” she said.
Haseena and her family were one of many Kashmiri households targeted in night raids that routinely followed government-led crackdowns in the region.

“If they were prosecuted it would have become a deterrent. Not prosecuting them says that there is state or institutional support for the crime they commit. Women never get justice; instead, they get scandalized.”

“I did not take her to the doctor or discuss it with anyone,” Haseena said. “If anyone [found out], they will stigmatize my daughter and who will marry her?”

After that first incident, female students in the village did not submit their examinations. “How will we study in these conditions? We are not able to focus,” said 17-year-old Muskan*. “We sit in our homes and keep glancing out through windows to keep a check on security forces.

“Not a single security person has been prosecuted in civilian court even after being charged,” he said.

Despite these legal protections, the physical, psychological and sexual abuse of women and girls still occurs in armed conflicts and so do in Kashmir. Violence against women in Kashmir is common and this is the violation of International law to which India is a signatory.

“[They] started dragging my daughter out,” Haseena said. “I was pleading with them to leave her, but they did not listen.” She told the men that if they had to take anyone to take her son, and begged them to leave her daughter, fearing that her rape — if not her murder —

would soon follow. Haseena said she didn’t want to face “the shame of her daughter being taken away by security forces.”

The men dragged Haseena’s daughter to the door, kicking her as she screamed for help. Bruises later pockmarked her body, but thankfully, she was otherwise unharmed.

The family live in a small village in south Kashmir, too far from the next residential area for anyone to have heard their screams. Though no one was taken that evening, the event itself lingers as a constant reminder of how vulnerable they are — anything can happen now.