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Resisting Disappearance: Military Occupation and Women's Activism in Kashmir
In Kashmir's frigid winter a woman leaves her door cracked open, waiting for the return of her only son. Every month in a public park in Srinagar, a child remembers her father as she joins her mother in collective mourning. The activist women who form the Association of the Parents of the Disappeared Persons (APDP) keep public attention focused on the 8,000 to 10,000 Kashmiri men disappeared by the Indian government forces since 1989. Surrounded by Indian troops, international photojournalists, and curious onlookers, the APDP activists cry, lament, and sing while holding photos and files documenting the lives of their disappeared loved ones. In this radical departure from traditionally private rituals of mourning, they create a spectacle of mourning that combats the government's threatening silence about the fates of their sons, husbands, and fathers.
Drawn from Ather Zia's ten years of engagement with the APDP as an anthropologist and fellow Kashmiri activist, Resisting Disappearance follows mothers and "half-widows" as they step boldly into courts, military camps, and morgues in search of their disappeared kin. Through an amalgam of ethnography, poetry, and photography, Zia illuminates how dynamics of gender and trauma in Kashmir have been transformed in the face of South Asia's longest-running conflict, providing profound insight into how Kashmiri women and men nurture a politics of resistance while facing increasing military violence under India.
Drawn from Ather Zia's ten years of engagement with the APDP as an anthropologist and fellow Kashmiri activist, Resisting Disappearance follows mothers and "half-widows" as they step boldly into courts, military camps, and morgues in search of their disappeared kin. Through an amalgam of ethnography, poetry, and photography, Zia illuminates how dynamics of gender and trauma in Kashmir have been transformed in the face of South Asia's longest-running conflict, providing profound insight into how Kashmiri women and men nurture a politics of resistance while facing increasing military violence under India.
288 pages, ebook
Published September 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
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June 21, 2024Started: 23. 3. 2024
I'm clearly not reading this, so taking it from my "currently reading shelf". I did read almost quarter of this and it's really readable and really interesting and such an important topic that's not talked about and absolutely should have, but... too many books right? And this one is really depressing. I might come back to it, because this was very enriching read, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
I'm clearly not reading this, so taking it from my "currently reading shelf". I did read almost quarter of this and it's really readable and really interesting and such an important topic that's not talked about and absolutely should have, but... too many books right? And this one is really depressing. I might come back to it, because this was very enriching read, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
November 29, 2021
Resisting Disappearance is based on an organisation called the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), "a group of Muslim Kashmiri women searching for their men
(also Kashmiri and Muslim) who have been forcibly disappeared by Indian
government forces in the part of Kashmir that is under Indian occupation".
Tracing the history of disappearing men and women’s struggles in Kashmir, Zia exemplifies how the experience of Habbeh Khatoon – the fifteenth-century poet’s never-ending search for her husband and struggle against the Mughals who sent her husband, the then indigenous king of Kashmir, into exile – is now manifest in a group of Kashmiri women searching for their men.
"Since the 1990s, enforced disappearances became part of a tacitly approved repertoire of punishments used to suppress the Tehreek, the popular name for the resistance movement against Indian rule".
(also Kashmiri and Muslim) who have been forcibly disappeared by Indian
government forces in the part of Kashmir that is under Indian occupation".
Tracing the history of disappearing men and women’s struggles in Kashmir, Zia exemplifies how the experience of Habbeh Khatoon – the fifteenth-century poet’s never-ending search for her husband and struggle against the Mughals who sent her husband, the then indigenous king of Kashmir, into exile – is now manifest in a group of Kashmiri women searching for their men.
"Since the 1990s, enforced disappearances became part of a tacitly approved repertoire of punishments used to suppress the Tehreek, the popular name for the resistance movement against Indian rule".
July 13, 2022
genius .
November 23, 2020
To an outsider, Kashmir has been reduced to cold statistics. And, it's more about the politics of Pak, India, separatists, etc. The stories of people of Kashmir, especially of women are hard to find. This book tells us those essential stories.
It specifically concentrates on how women started APDP, an association which keeps an account of enforced disappearances and a support system for families struggling to find answers to members of family who suddenly go 'missing'. It sheds light on gendered politics and protests. On how women, who would have otherwise been within four walls, have now stepped up and are leading this resistance. On how they cope with loss and fear. On how they mourn, how they wail. What keeps them going?
The writing is brilliant. It brings alive these people. Forces you to see them as humans and not be forgotten as another statistic. Also loved the little cultural nuggets thrown in.
One of the imp books to understand Kashmiri women. Highly recommend.
It specifically concentrates on how women started APDP, an association which keeps an account of enforced disappearances and a support system for families struggling to find answers to members of family who suddenly go 'missing'. It sheds light on gendered politics and protests. On how women, who would have otherwise been within four walls, have now stepped up and are leading this resistance. On how they cope with loss and fear. On how they mourn, how they wail. What keeps them going?
The writing is brilliant. It brings alive these people. Forces you to see them as humans and not be forgotten as another statistic. Also loved the little cultural nuggets thrown in.
One of the imp books to understand Kashmiri women. Highly recommend.
January 21, 2021
A brilliant ethnography, animated by a compelling writing style that could be best described as 'commovente'. This book is both instructive and informative regarding political mourning and the struggle in Kashmir as told through intimate ethnographies. The methodologies used (ethnography, intimate ethnography, ethnographic poetry) gives grounds for a study that is rigorous, personal, and artistic.
December 15, 2020
Resisting Disappearance is Zia's moving portrayal of the courage, the helplessness, and persistence of Kashmiri families against state violence as they search for their loved ones forcibly disappeared by India's military occupation. Men are forcibly removed, arrested, tortured, sexually assaulted, and in what is considered a democracy, the Indian army leaves no trace of a record that these men ever existed in their custody. When family members seek refuge through the law, they rarely get any help. 8,000 to 10,000 Kashmiri men have been forcibly disappeared by the Indian government forces since 1989. In this book, Zia follows activist women who formed the Association of the Parents of the Disappeared Persons (APDP) as they fight for justice. In the face of a non-responsive and often cruel Indian army, these activists slowly build the "file", an archive of documents that might trace the existence of their loved ones. The justice system is brutal, even as the family members are relentless.
Besides forcibly disappearing the men, the Indian army also engages in the sexual assault and rape of women and men in the family. Theoretically, Zia's account is significant for our understanding of gender relations. Women experience sexual assault and rape. They also experience benevolent sexism when they are not seen as a threat as much as men are but still have to perform their femininity in certain ways for protection. Zia writes about non-hegemonic masculinities as Kashmiri men are emasculated, tortured, and sexually assaulted. Many women insist on walking alongside Kashmiri men because women's presence is what protects Kashmiri men from violence. The nuances of gendered processes in the context of war and state violence are theoretically significant. As is evident in other movements of mothers, these activists also utilize "affective law" or affect to remind themselves and the Indian army that justice has not been done. When there is a brutal force such as the army, affect is possibly their best strategy.
One of the chapters that I found deeply moving is about the "half-widows." The wives of disappeared men are known as "half-widows." They have lost their husbands but these women also hope their husbands are not dead. Add to that, the violence of the welfare state, which will provide widows with paltry benefits, only if they declare their husbands dead. The only thing they had was hope, and that too will be taken away from them. These women struggle through the bureaucracy to secure the death certificate to access the paltry sum. But through it all, they experience a deep pain regarding their husband's second "death by paper."
These families want independence, but often they are coerced to be "Indian," because the only choices available are violence and violence. Reading these experiences of Kashmiri families, there can be no doubt why the calls for azaadi (freedom) are loudest in the valley.
Highly recommended. If you are Indian, even more so. It's important we learn what "our" government is doing to Kashmiris.
Besides forcibly disappearing the men, the Indian army also engages in the sexual assault and rape of women and men in the family. Theoretically, Zia's account is significant for our understanding of gender relations. Women experience sexual assault and rape. They also experience benevolent sexism when they are not seen as a threat as much as men are but still have to perform their femininity in certain ways for protection. Zia writes about non-hegemonic masculinities as Kashmiri men are emasculated, tortured, and sexually assaulted. Many women insist on walking alongside Kashmiri men because women's presence is what protects Kashmiri men from violence. The nuances of gendered processes in the context of war and state violence are theoretically significant. As is evident in other movements of mothers, these activists also utilize "affective law" or affect to remind themselves and the Indian army that justice has not been done. When there is a brutal force such as the army, affect is possibly their best strategy.
One of the chapters that I found deeply moving is about the "half-widows." The wives of disappeared men are known as "half-widows." They have lost their husbands but these women also hope their husbands are not dead. Add to that, the violence of the welfare state, which will provide widows with paltry benefits, only if they declare their husbands dead. The only thing they had was hope, and that too will be taken away from them. These women struggle through the bureaucracy to secure the death certificate to access the paltry sum. But through it all, they experience a deep pain regarding their husband's second "death by paper."
These families want independence, but often they are coerced to be "Indian," because the only choices available are violence and violence. Reading these experiences of Kashmiri families, there can be no doubt why the calls for azaadi (freedom) are loudest in the valley.
Highly recommended. If you are Indian, even more so. It's important we learn what "our" government is doing to Kashmiris.
March 21, 2021
“This book contributes to the understanding, amplifying women’s voices as they emerge and make themselves heard in conditions of political violence, the significance of which can no longer be ignored” (p.222)
A poetic, heartbreaking and extremely important ethnography of the women and men who bear the trauma of forced disappearances from the Indian Army in Kashmir.
A poetic, heartbreaking and extremely important ethnography of the women and men who bear the trauma of forced disappearances from the Indian Army in Kashmir.
July 19, 2020
Informative yet hard on the heart. Strength yet powerless. Ather Zia is an exceptional writer and contributor to the Kashmiri cause.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews