As the world marked ‘International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict’ on Friday, hundreds of thousands of Muslim women and girls in occupied Jammu and Kashmir are under serious threat because Modi’s Hindutva supremacist government continues using rape and molestation as a weapon of war in the occupied region.
The conflict-related sexual violence refers to rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against women, men, girls or boys that is directly or indirectly linked to a conflict. The term also encompasses trafficking in persons when committed in situations of conflict for the purpose of sexual violence or exploitation.
Five years ago, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed June 19 as the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. The goal in commemorating this day is to raise awareness of the need to end conflict-related sexual violence, to honor the victims and survivors of sexual violence around the world, and to pay tribute to all those who have courageously devoted their lives to – and lost their lives by – seeking the eradication of these crimes.
As far as Indian-held Kashmir is concerned, it’s a double-edged sword for women residing in the occupied territory as they live in a conflict zone and at the same time experience a constant threat of sexual violence. Even amid Covid-19 lockdown, 16 rape cases and 64 incidents of molestations have been reported from the occupied region. In the past three decades, more than 11,000 women have been victims of rape or gang-rape at the hands of Indian occupation forces in the valley. What is more condemnable is when governments themselves use sexual violence as a policy just like occupation forces have been doing continuously in the Indian-held Kashmir.
Women in the occupied valley have frequently been target of violence and aggression as a means to punish their families and communities for standing up against illegal Indian occupation. The horrific mass rape of Kashmiri women in Kunan, Poshpura villages of occupied valley on February 23, 1991, is one of many evidences of systematic use of rape by Indian occupation forces to terrorize the entire population.
India’s renewed cordon-and-search operations are proving a nightmare for Kashmir’s women. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) gives the Indian army a free hand to commit excesses with impunity and the complaints against these excesses are thus ignored. Abduction and molestation of young women and girls during so-called cordon-and-search operations has been used as a punitive tool by Indian occupation forces to punish entire communities fighting for their right to self-determination and freedom.
The Human Rights Watch has recorded an increasing trend of rape in remote and poor villages in the occupied valley at the hands of Indian security forces, where women are less likely to report the incident. In the cases where the incidents are reported, Indian army officers accused of raping Kashmiri women are often acquitted through the manipulation of laws.
The harassment of women is not limited to the Indian security forces alone. The revocation of Article 370 by India on August 5 last year raised challenges for Kashmiri Muslims, particularly women. Soon after the move, social media in India was abuzz with posts of men showing their excitement about getting the ‘fair-colored Kashmiri brides’.
The situation of children in occupied valley of Kashmir is also seriously grim. According to a fact finding mission which spent five days in the occupied valley last year, around 13,000 boys were picked up from their homes in the middle of the night from their beds and are still being held indefinitely, illegally, either in army camps or in police stations during the lockdown after the abrogation of Article 370. The report highlights how Indian army officers abducted young boys in night time raids and molested and sexually abused girls during such raids after August 5. “Hundreds of boys and teens are being picked up from their beds in midnight raids. The only purpose of these raids is to create fear. Women and girls told us of molestation by armed forces during these raids,” according to the report titled ‘Kashmir Caged: A Fact-Finding Report’.
A lack of accountability of perpetrators and absence of justice for victims of rape in the occupied region continue to define India’s deliberate disregard of rule of law and human rights. On the ‘International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict’, the world needs to pay attention towards the constant plight of Kashmiri women. It is time to recognize their right to an environment free from sexual abuse, rape and torture. The world must wake up to these war tactics in the occupied valley which are a sheer violation of international humanitarian and human rights law as well as applicable UN Security Council resolutions. The UN Security Council, OHCHR, the UN human rights mechanisms and the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict must take cognizance of these crimes and hold Indian state actors to account who abet and partake in acts of sexual violence against women in the occupied region. It is time for the world to act before it’s too late.
