Category: Politics
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Iran and The Hijab Row
Illustration by Mir Suhail There is a need to revisit the issue of women’s rights not only in Iran but also in several other countries. Dr. Sadaf Munshi In her book Iran Awakening: One Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country (2007), Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian political activist, lawyer, a former judge and founder…
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Kashmir quagmire: How to interpret the worsening situation?
In October 2010, a 15-year old class 10 student, Burhan Wani, suddenly disappears from his home at Sharifabad, a nondescript village in the remote Tral area of Kashmir one fine day. This happens after he and his brother Khalid were intercepted and thrashed by the Indian security forces when they were on their way to…
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That Fable of Kashmiri Cultural Ethos
It is 18th of May 2013. A beautiful morning in Texas! I wake up to a message in my mailbox: “Hi! I must tell you this! Just a while back I was hosting you and your little girl in my Kashmir home. It was so real…. You are in a reddish sari looking really pretty and I bump…
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Casualties of the “Freedom” Struggle
It was April 1990. Everyday life in Kashmir was under siege. Schools and colleges were closed most of the time. I spent my days tending to the household work in the kitchen with my mother and my sister or reading in my room. We hardly went outdoors during those days, and when we did, we…
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No Lessons Learned from the Past?
Will New Delhi continue to resort to procrastination or has the past experience offered any hopes for a lasting solution to the Kashmir imbroglio? Dr. Sadaf Munshi A continuing cycle of seemingly endless killings by the security forces, public protests against human rights violations, unending shutdown calendars put in place by the separatist groups, and…
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India using an iron fist in Kashmir
Why are Kashmiris doing this? Let us all walk the path of wellbeing! This was the statement of an old friend of mine from the Indian mainland in response to the prevailing political crisis in Kashmir. I looked at her in silence and hopelessness. It was August 15th and I was in New Delhi, on…
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India’s AFSPA – A License to Human Rights Violations
Dr. Sadaf Munshi India’s extremely controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) – a cruel, repugnant law used in Jammu & Kashmir since 1990 and in the Northeast since 1958 – permits, according to its critics, a localized form of de facto emergency rule. The provisions of AFSPA include the power of the armed forces…
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Let Me Be Clear
Insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. …
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Where Did We Fail?
This article was inspired by a number of letters which have recently appeared in several Kashmir-based dailies in response to some totally bizarre statements made by Syed Ali Shah Geelani in an interview published in the daily Rising Kashmir in which he blames the people of Kashmir for the failure of the separatist movement while…
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Perils of Destructive Politics
By: Dr. Sadaf Munshi “Kashmiri people follow Geelani, believe in JKLF ideology and pin hopes on Mirwaiz” The statement quoted above was an observation made by a scholar from the United Kingdom during a Kashmir visit in 2010 when over 116 young lives were lost for nothing. In the past few days, the situation in…
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