Voice of the Valley
SHUJAAT BUKHARI
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The Srinagar audience was reduced to tears at a film show highlighting the suffering of women during Kashmir's 17-year turmoil.
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This was for the first time a women-exclusive film was shown highlighting their sufferings
For a moment it seemed as if it was not the same Tagore Hall, usually a venue for cultural programmes, plays and musharias. As Kashmir's prominent poetess Nasim Shifai recited a verse reflecting the sufferings of people in the trouble torn Valley, only sobs and shrieks could be heard. "Ye Aes Akh Padshah Bai (There Was a Queen)", the two-hour documentary was screened at the hall highlighting the women's initiatives in Kashmir's 17-year conflict in which women have been the worst sufferers.
"Mate Martew Wane Chu Wanse Kam, Mate Martew Wane Chu Na Manze Nam (Do not die you are too young, Do not die you the henna is still on your nails)" — this is how Shifai described the fate of youth in the conflict by modifying the verses of great Kashmiri poet Mehmood Gami. In fact the title of the film has also been picked up from Shifai's poem, and the princess also talks about her children who come home late. Her verses reduced scores of those mothers whose sons have gone missing in these 17 years to tears.
Young filmmakers
Two young filmmakers from Mumbai, Kavita Pai and Hansa Thapliyal, have made the film for Other Media Communications and travelled to remote areas in Kashmir to trace the role of women in the conflict. From highlighting the brave fight many women have put up, to the efforts of others who joined empowerment avenues, the filmmakers have primarily stressed how the brunt of the struggle is faced by women, as mother, daughter, sister or wife.
The film revolves round Parveena Ahangar, whose son Javed is missing in "custody" since 1990. An illiterate woman, she founded Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and is fighting till date, not only for her son but thousands of others. Pai and Thapliyal agree that Parveena figures in the film many times, but say it does not revolve around her. It is just because she has played a "greater role" they explain. That such women are rare in Kashmir makes her more relevant, adds Pai.
The story
The documentary starts with the infamous fake encounter exposed in February this year, in which bodies of five civilians killed as "foreign militants" were exhumed. Ghulam Rasool Padder, father of Abdur Rehman, one of the victims, gives the statement about his missing son. Then the long and unending story of miseries in Kashmir with focus on women starts. There is Mughli, who lost four of her sons, talking about the tough life she is leading, and a group of girls in Maisuma, the heart of trouble in Srinagar, engaged at a vocational training centre. The innocent girls have powerful expressions of their stories. One has lost her brother while another talks about how difficult it is to walk past a security forces bunker. An interesting discussion takes place at the Centre in which the girls try to define who is a shaheed (martyr), the one killed by security forces or the one by militants. One young girl has a strong argument that whosoever is innocent and killed is a shaheed. The example of two young girls killed in crossfire in Sopore also reveals the trauma of the people.
"Why is Pakistan playing cricket with India when it says Kashmir is disputed and we are a party to it," is the terse comment from a woman in Sopore who lost her daughter and blamed the Army for deliberately killing her. Same is the case with a young woman in Malangam (Bandipore) whose brother was a militant and killed in a gunfight. She brought up his children and did not marry. But she curses everybody from the government to the Hurriyat for not paying attention to their needs.
In her interview Shifai highlights the plight of Kashmiri youth saying, "When they go out of Kashmir to save themselves they are being harassed, especially on the eve of August 15 and January 26. Every Kashmiri youth is a militant."
Hamida Naeem, a teacher at Kashmir University, believes women in Kashmir have braved everything like men and even suffered more. "The right of self determination is our inalienable right and we should get it," she says in the documentary. But she does not hesitate to criticise the militants too. "Why should they (militants) kill the civilians? Why are they settling scores with their own people? This is not in the interest of the movement," she adds. "This was for the first time a women-exclusive film was shown highlighting their sufferings," said Raashid Maqbool, a local journalist. Kavita and Hansa say that it was difficult for them to identify the people on whom they could work. Initially hesitant to take up the project, they were happy they did.
The camera work is by Ranu Gosh. Sound is by Gissy Michael, editing by Gouri Patwardhan and music by Manish J Tipu.
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