KARACHI: Women are the worst sufferers in any conflict situation and the same is the case in India-held Kashmir. The state-sponsored violence in the valley must stop and all detainees be released. Let Kashmiris (on both sides of the border) decide their own political and legal future.

These key messages were aptly conveyed at a conference titled ‘Kashmir ki aurat ki aawaz’ organised by the Women’s Action Forum at the Arts Council on Thursday.

The programme started off with a brief speech by Nuzhat Kidvai representing WAF. She explained to the audience why women’s perspective was important especially in a conflict zone.

Rights activists lament plight of women in occupied-Kashmir

“While they suffered the most in any conflict, people generally don’t admit this reality, which is unfortunate,” she said before reading out a poem written by rights activist Anis Haroon.

Her point was further elaborated by activist Sheema Kermani leading a Tehreek-i-Niswan troupe, which put up a moving performance, highlighting the new wave of physical and mental torture Kashmiri women had been experiencing in the occupied valley for the last 53 days with people confined to their homes, having no access to communication, educational facilities, hospitals and shops.

The dramatic presentation depicted the plight of women whose loved ones have been picked up by security agencies, women were deprived of emergency care at the time of delivery and those raped by security men.

“Often men question the need for listening to women’s perspective separately. This is important because there are some issues specific to women; it’s a woman who carries a baby for nine months,” argued Mehnaz Rehman of the Aurat Foundation during a panel discussion, adding that rape was often used as a weapon in a conflict situation.

UN silence deplored

She deplored the silence of the United Nations over the situation in Kashmir and said it had been more than seven decades that the world body had been failing the Kashmiris, who now faced the worst kind of atrocities at the hands of the Indian forces.

Uzma Noorani, representing the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said women were the worst sufferers in any conflict zone as violence had a more profound impact on them. Post-traumatic disorders, if not addressed in time, intensified, she said.

Criticising war-mongering on both sides of the border, she said states must demonstrate responsibility and must not use nuclear weapons as a threat.

Condemning human rights violations by Indian forces in Kashmir, Anis Haroon, representing the Pakistan-India Peace Forum, said both India and Pakistan should address the issue politically and allow Kashmiris to decide their own future.

Pakistan, she pointed out, would have been in a better position to highlight the Kashmir issue at international forums, if the government had cared more for fundamental rights within the country, while hinting at cases of missing persons.

Writer and teacher Amar Sindhu was of the opinion that both Pakistan and India had been in a state of war within their own territories since 1947, emphasising that the voice of Kashmiris must be heard.

A resolution passed at the conference reaffirmed Kashmiris’ unequivocal right to self-determination and demanded immediate lifting of curfew, an end to militarisation and use of illegal force, pellet guns and other forms of criminal intimidation and immediate restoration/reinstatement of Article 370 and 35 A of the Indian constitution.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2019