My Journey



“If you educate a man, you educate an individual but if you educate a woman, you educate whole of the family”. This adage has no buyers in conservative Muslim societies, especially in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. Unfortunately I was born in Srinagar, India, world’s highly militarized zone in the same conservative Muslim family. Mine was a nuclear family but my family clung to age old conservative values. As a kid, life to me was rosy and pleasant but the transition from childhood to girlhood was miserable and painful. It was a transitional stage from immaturity to maturity and during this stage I encountered my first discrimination at home. The discrimination was partly because of conservative family values and partly due to prolonged conflict in Kashmir. On and off, my family members made me realize that I am a girl and my share is very limited in comparison to my brother. So in a way, I wasn’t equal to my sibling. My human rights were different than my brothers.



To a greater extent, my freedom was curtailed. Now I wasn’t worried about the men in uniforms though they posed a great threat to the dignity and integrity of women in Kashmir. My heart went out and out when my family snatched my basic human rights. My space begun to shrink and I used to fear my own shadow. This repeated discrimination hardened my belief that my role in this men dominated society is miniscule or limited. In a way, I was in cage and I wanted to liberate myself from the shackles of ignorance through education. I worked hard to convince my family inmates to let me complete my education. This journey was painful and tiresome. Finally, I completed my graduation and started looking for my own space. Though it was a dreaded path, nonetheless it bore fruits. Today I am of my own, like a blade of leaf which has its own space.



Sumera B. Reshi

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