Kashmir Affairs - Security & Conflict Analysis of Kashmir

Shattered Dreams
By Nyla A Khan
23 August 2008

A pristine young bride at Lissar Chowgam, Mubeena Bano, reeling with joyful longing in anticipation of her marriage to Abdul Rashid Malik on May 18, 1990. Mubeena had been weaving youthful dreams of creating a romantic life away from the trials and tribulations of her militant infested village. Her family had gone to great lengths to give their home a bridal ambience pervaded with a festive air. Despite the threat from militants who were antithetical to celebration, Mubeena and her relatives had managed to create an atmosphere of laughter and fun. Little did Mubeena’s family know that their precious daughter, their pride and joy whom they had sheltered from the turbulent waves of life wasn’t destined to indulge in the unconditional affection of her husband and in-laws.

While on the way to her husband, Abdul Rashid Malik’s home along with his entourage of Baratis, the virginal bride was horrendously violated by an unleashed and bestial group of paramilitary personnel. The strapping groom, Malik, and some members of his entourage were brutally shot at without provocation on Badhasgam crossing. The pain-filled screams of the young bride, who had given her heart and soul to her groom, rent the air and pierced the hardest heart. She had been defiled; her glory had been besmirched, and her beautiful innocence had ended. She felt abandoned with no one to turn to. Had God forsaken her? Would she be saved by a messiah or would she be left at the mercy of these satanic creatures? Was this a nightmare that would vanish at the break of dawn? Would she wake up to find herself in the bridal chamber, anxiously awaiting the sound of footsteps? Mubeena’s mind was so numb that she couldn’t remember a single Quranic verse, which she had been taught to recite when in danger. Her husband who hitherto had carried himself with dignity was incapacitated for a while after this spine chilling incident.

I met Mubeena and Abdul Rahid on July 25^th, 2008, at Sarnal. Mubeena is an emaciated woman who is ploughing a lonely furrow. Subsequent to the unwarranted violence unleashed on May 18^th, 1990, on Badhasgam crossing, Mubeena was ostracized by her in-laws who were unwilling to forgive her for having been brutally raped by paramilitary personnel. Despite the indelible scar on her psyche and her humiliation, Mubeena had the resilience to cope with the buffets that fate had dealt her. Her husband’s unflinching support helped to strengthen her resilience. Abdul Rashid Malik, unlike a lot of macho men raised in a patriarchal culture, was sympathetic to his wife’s physical pain and psychological crippling. As the head of their small family, he made the firm decision to defy everyone who cast aspersions on Mubeena and avoided her like the plague. Abdul Rashid realized that he could have been in the same plight as Mubeena. With the pervasion of the culture of violence and humiliation of the dominated, there has been an increase of such dishonorable and shameful incidents.

Mubeena is now the mother of three spirited and courageous children who know about the reprehensible atrocities inflicted on their parents. Her children have the strength to protect their mother’s dignity with aplomb. Her younger son gave me the FIR which his parents filed soon after the feral display of aggression on May 18^th, 1990. That FIR, like a lot of other cases filed by people without the armour of clout or money, was buried under the detritus of law and order. Mubeena’s husband, like a lot of young and able-bodied Kashmiri men, is unemployed, exacerbating his sense of impotence. Will the grievances of such aggrieved and powerless people ever be redressed? Will the violated women of Kashmir ever have the satisfaction of knowing that those who wronged them didn’t go unpunished?

Ah Yeh Qaum-e-Najeeb O Charb Dasto Tar Demagh
Hai Kahan Roz-e-Mukafat Ae Khudai Dair Gair

(Lamenting the fate of the people of Kashmir, Iqbal talks of these healthy, hard-working, and intelligent people and demands of God the rising of the day of recompense for these people.)