‘Growing up under the shadow of the gun’: Research on the lives of women who grew up with the realities of the Armed Force Special Powers Act in Kashmir

Abstract

Implemented in 1990, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act gives the Indian army blanket immunity to arrest, interrogate, kill and rape Kashmiri’s if they are considered a safety threat. At this moment seventy per cent of Kashmir’s population is under the age of thirty-five. This means that most of them have grown up knowing no other reality than that of living in a heavily securitized zone. This thesis is written based on the memories and experiences of thirty women who all come from Kashmir. Some of them were born just before 1990, most of them after this defining year in Kashmir history. Women’s voices are the most misunderstood and underreported in a conflict. This thesis aims to find an answer to how the securitization of Kashmir, through the AFSPA, has mobilized women to use public space as a tool for resistance in Srinagar. It finds that women mobilize to claim a space for their own identity as Kashmiri women, within a larger society that experiences an attack on its identity in the form of Indian occupation. Social media is an important tool my respondents use to voice their opinion, get to know about protests and organize their own gatherings. By coming together, stepping out in public to share their lived experiences these women are subverting a gendered public space and a traditionally gendered resistance movement. Public space thus becomes a tool for resistance against Indian occupation and traditional boundaries at the same time. The participants of this research project painted a picture of a generation of women that will no longer wait until Kashmir’s independence to fight for their own rights. No longer are they simply a victim of conflict or a family member of a missing loved one. Slowly but steadily they are changing the face of resistance in Kashmir.