Islam, Women, and Violence in Kashmir: Between India and Pakistan

Since 1989, religious fundamentalism and exclusionary nationalism in Jammu and Kashmir have generated political and social turmoil and eroded the ethos and culture of Kashmir. These forces are responsible for the silencing of dissenters, economic deprivation, lack of infrastructure, mass displacements, political anarchy, and the repression of women. Women in Kashmir constantly grapple with both the devastating effects of Indian occupation and Pakistani infiltration and their own complicated histories. Nyla Ali Khan, the granddaughter of the first Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah,?gives an insider’s analysis of the effects of nationalist, militant, and religious discourses and praxes on a gender-based hierarchy. This cross-disciplinary project shows the attempted relegation of Kashmiri women to the archives of memory and reveals the women?s powerful and persistent endeavors to rise?from the ashes of immolated identities.