On the International Day of the Girl Child, Kashmiri girls who were victims of Indian atrocities will be remembered. International Day of the Girl Child is an annual and internationally recognized observance held on October 11 that empowers and amplifies the voices of girls. Women are the primary victims of Indian state terrorism in IIOJK.
International Day of the Girl Child
IIOJK had become the worst nightmare for Kashmiri women over the years, with Indian forces subjecting tens of thousands of them to severe human rights violations such as rape, torture, and murder. Children in IIOJK are subjected to the most heinous forms of persecution at the hands of Indian occupation forces. The way Kashmiri women are eroticized and objectified on a daily basis in Jammu and Kashmir, the way their bodies are portrayed as powerless and used to instil fear and terror, has increased the sense of being preyed upon. Systematic sexual abuse and various forms of gendered savagery are frequently portrayed as weapons of war.
Kashmiri Women Are Exploited And Victimized:
“Muslim party workers should rejoice in the new provisions,” said a BJP Legislative Assembly member. They can now marry Kashmir’s white-skinned women.” The Indian government and forces have become accustomed to objectifying Kashmiri women. They are people with hollow souls and filthy minds, capable of destroying a person’s life through the illegitimate use of power. These devils, known as Indian Occupational Forces, deliberately seek to devastate the lives of innocent Kashmiri masses. Nobody in IIOJK is safe, not women, not children, not youth, not the elderly. They have long chanted “FREEDOM” slogans until they are on their deathbeds.
It is never easy to lose a loved one. But seeing the closed one weeping breathlessly and dying in hands, hoping for survival, is a heart-breaking trauma for all. Every part of the region is calling for justice. But from whom should they demand? The voices of the innocent Kashmiris are being ignored by the rest of the world. Their women’s screams are unheard. On the one hand, the world is addressing the Sustainable Development Goals in the form of peace, freedom, and equality, while on the other hand, the world remains silent on the most dangerous conflicted area in the world, namely Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Sexual Abuse-Women Under Indian Oppression:
The following types of human rights violations have been documented: “forced disappearances,” torture, assault, rape, molestation, torture, and attack on Muslim women in Indian-occupied Kashmir. In 2005, Médecins Sans Frontières conducted a study in Kashmir that discovered that the number of people who had witnessed an ambush in Kashmir since 1989 was far greater than the number of people who had witnessed an attack in other conflict zones, such as Chechnya and Sri Lanka. The Kashmiri-Canadian Council reported that 6,300 Kashmiri women had been sexually exploited. Sexual assault is a system used to lash Kashmiri women accused of ties to the aggressors by Indian security forces. The security forces intend to repel and humiliate the entire system by attacking these women.” Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Psychological Trauma in Women of IIOJK:
Between the middle of April 2018 and the middle of March 2019, 366,906 people received treatment in a psychiatric clinical centre in Srinagar alone, accounting for just under 3% of the state’s total population. With torture, rapes, and molestation becoming the norm in Kashmir, psychiatric disorders have skyrocketed among the population, particularly among women. Prior to the onset of militarization, certain previously unknown to Kashmiris disorders began to show a significant presence among the population. Pot Traumatic Stress Disorder, which was completely unrecognized in the valley prior to heavy militarization in the valley of Kashmir until 1990, has steadily increased with each passing year. Other mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, phobia, panic attacks, general anxiety, and sleep disorders, have increased significantly.
To stop a woman, whether physically or mentally, is to traumatize an entire society, generation, and women all over the world. Frailty, on the other hand, can never be a characteristic of women until and unless society’s brutal animals destroy their will, ambitions, desires, self-esteem, honour, present, and future, so they can never raise their voices against these beasts. As this is their primary strategy for keeping these women quiet. Sexual assault, sexual violence, and abuse are not just harsh terms; they are actions that can deprive women and men of every positive feeling and thought they have ever had.
The Title of Half Widow:
“Half-widow,” is a term used to describe women whose husbands have vanished and are still missing as a result of the ongoing conflict in Kashmir. Countless women have been victims of Indian forces’ atrocities during the border conflict and violence inside Kashmir, with “enforced disappearances” of husbands, fathers, brothers, and children over years of conflict. Not only half-widows have suffered during the years of conflict in Kashmir. The half-orphans have also suffered greatly as a result of living lives with few opportunities. A generation of children is now living in the confusion of broken dreams as their self-esteem is wrapped in the identity of a missing father. The women are deep in slumber and are unwilling to accept the [half-widow’s] misery. They do not have the rights that they deserve. These women do not fit into any of the categories established by various non-governmental organizations, orphanages, or widows’ homes.”
