Sir, while being ‘deported’ from an abortive visit to IHK, a Kashmiri woman told harrowing tales of Kashmiri women under military siege. Earlier, Irish Times, in an editorial dated August 8, 2019 (“Kashmir crisis – A dangerous provocation”) blew the lid off on Indian atrocities. Abolition of Articles 370 and 35-A are invasion of personal and religious identity of Kashmiris. These articles disallow Indians from other states to buy property In Kashmir. A Kashmiri woman marrying a foreigner or non-Kashmiri loses her hereditary proprietary entitlement. These articles were abolished to forcibly buy property, and brides in Kashmir (as practiced in other Indian states). To insult Kashmiri women, Uttar Pradesh BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini announced that the ‘party workers can now go to Jammu and Kashmir and marry “fair” women there’ (India Today August 10, 2019). The idea is to use Kashmiri women as bonded labour. They could not seek khul’a (wife-initiated divorce) under Hindu religious code.
Al Jazeera reported ‘Kashmir women are the biggest victims of this inhumane siege. Sense of fear deepens as Indian politicians stoke misogyny with talk of freedom to marry ‘white-skinned’ Kashmiri women’ (Al Jazeera dated August 21, 2019).
Kashmiri leaders, now under detention, had announced to stall triple talaq (divorce). But, India touts triple-divorce penalization as ‘justice for Kashmiri women’. No dynasty, including the ‘Slaves’, the ‘Delhi Sultans’, the Moghul, or the British rulers penalized the pronouncement of triple talaq. None of the four eminent jurists, Ahmed bin Hanbal, Shaf’ie, Malik, and Abu Hanifa penalized it under Quran and Sunnah.
Why does India not do justice to Hindu women by giving them the right to divorce (disallowed under Hindu religious code)? Let India punish those who forced Hindu widows like Sharbati Bhai, Roop Kanwar, and their ilk to commit satti (widow self-burning). Why was ‘a four-year-old girl, named Surjo, boiled in a tub and then beheaded to please gods as part of a religious sacrifice’ (Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, June 25, 2005)? Why are the women in period still barred from Sabrimala Temple despite Supreme Court’s order?
Deeba Malik
Rawalpindi
