THE DILEMMA OF KASHMIR’S HALF-WIDOWS | SPECIAL REPORT | 23-06-2022 | FREEDOM FOR ALL WEBTV

Among the devastating effects of war is one that is often witnessed yet hard to truly quantify: hundreds of thousands of people go missing every year, never to be seen again by their loved ones. Family and friends are left in limbo, while wives live in poverty and despair as “half-widows”, not knowing whether their husbands are dead or alive. Disappearances like these have long been a feature of the conflict in IIOJK. There is often no record of arrests and this kind of torture is used as a state tool to suppress their freedom struggle. Those subjected to enforced disappearances tend to be men but women are the unreported victims of war. At present, the number of half-widows remains unconfirmed: Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JCCS) estimates there are 1,500 half-widows while other estimates put the number closer to 2,500. Half-widows are also facing financial difficulties because they cannot access their husband’s property or bank accounts since death certificates are required for this. But these are not available since their husbands are not officially recognized as deceased. “We have become specimens,” said Bano Begum a Kashmiri half widow while giving an interview. “Hundreds of people with cameras, pen and copies have visited our place, interviewed us and then never returned like our husbands. They have sold our tragedies. We are fed-up with giving out interviews. Will your report bring back my husband?” As the International Widows Day approaches, it is important for advocacy groups to raise awareness of the violence and the plight of Kashmir’s half-widows, so that these women are no longer forgotten because human rights groups confirms that not a single disappeared husband has returned so far in the past 33 years of conflict.