“She asked him, if she
was under house arrest to which cops used to say No, you are not. Then she
asked again whether she can just go outside and buy cigarette? And again the
answer was No! What does this even mean- I am not under house arrest and I can’t
even go out? She questioned again to meet just silence. This used to continue
every day, the cops came every day to monitor house to see if there is change even
if that means shifting of chair from one place to another in the same room. So
just for this she started changing the position of the things which were there
in the house. This was her way of showing resistance, these small acts of
dissent which made it clear that she doesn’t accept the authority who in the
name of law has taken her independence for granted”
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| picture credits : WISCOMP |
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| picture credits : WISCOMP |
The panelists included Rosemary
Dzuvichu, who is an advisor to the Naga Mothers Association and has served
as the Kohima District Mahilla Congress president. She is also the chair of the
department of English at Nagaland University; Sumona Dashgupta who works
as an independent researcher and consultant, she had also served as assistant
director at WISCOMP and Lubna Sayed Qadri who works on the revival of
traditional art and craft forms, and community-based tourism in Kashmir,
specifically in the rehabilitation of the Tosa Maidan in Jammu and Kashmir.
The panel was moderated
by Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath, Founder and Director of WISCOMP, who initiated the discussion
by introducing the panelists and emphasizing on the “need of sharing and
hearing more stories” in terms of working on peace in contemporary society
especially in conflict ridden zones.
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| picture credits : WISCOMP |
It was an insightful
experience to hear Rosemary talk about the politics and women’s rights in the conflict
zone Nagaland, where she kept referring to Nagaland as a separate entity not as
state of India. She strongly pointed out the patriarchal structure of Naga
tribes and communities which are being constantly hostile towards women
representatives in spite of getting support from the Government of India and
Judiciary. She also spoke about the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers
Act, the conflict between militants and the Indian government, constant struggles
of women residing in the conflict ridden zones and the way they are fighting structural
violence in their day today lives to reclaim their rights and negotiate peace.
It’s a common stereotype that women from North East are way too independent and
they have matrilineal society but on contrary they even lack land rights which
also questions their citizenship.
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| picture credits : WISCOMP |
Sumona Dashgupta talked
about stories of resistance by victims in post conflict society – particularly three
episodes of life restoring acts by women from what she calls “the theatres of
conflict” in Guatemala, Palestine, and Northern Islands. She referred to a
collaborative research where through art, women who were victims of severe
sexual violence narrated their stories of suffering and challenging the
violence in the form of paintings. She emphasized that though the narratives of
restoration have largely been based on research and documentation are about truth
telling, the focus should now move to truth seeking so that we have comprehensive
outlook on the role of women in conflict zones and how that can contribute
towards peace building.
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| picture credits : WISCOMP |
This was followed by
young and vibrant Lubna Sayed Qadri, who
spoke about her work on the closure of the Tosa Maidan firing range and
minefields, conservation, development of community-based tourism model,
provision of (individual and collective) compensation for victims in Jammu and
Kashmir high court, and strict implementation of rules for operational firing
ranges in the state. She also shared about use of collective RTIs and PILs to
fight fearlessly against oppressive state machinery. It was truly inspiring to
hear a young woman leading the change in one of the most conflict ridden state
of India.
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| picture credits : WISCOMP |
After this, the session
was opened to questions and comments; I was really intrigued by the sharing of
all the three panelists.
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| picture credits : WISCOMP |
My mind was constantly hammered with the thought that
it’s not just conflict zones but also in the most regular spaces women fight
for their very existence in their day to day life. Also when we talk about
conflict zones, what does “Nation” mean to them especially in the
current socio-political framework when there is always a sword called anti
nationalist hanging on our head?
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| picture credits : WISCOMP |
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| picture credits : WISCOMP |
This actually lead to very interesting
discussion where Sumona Dashgupta referred to Rabindranath Tagore’s poem where
he says
“Where the mind is
without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into
fragments
By narrow domestic
walls”
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| picture credits : WISCOMP |
She said that the current
situations makes us question whether we belong to this nation or not, also we
need to reflect on the fact that when we don’t even have land rights and our
citizenship is questioned, do women actually have a nation?
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| picture credits : WISCOMP |
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| picture credits : WISCOMP |
The discussion came to
an end with the thought of finding enabling spaces for women in order to work
towards ensuring, restoring and negotiating peace at all levels. This
discussion was very crucial, informative, participatory and also very
insightful because when we talk about gender based violence we generally don’t
talk about the situations of women in conflict zone, also many of us do have an
idea of what is going on in Kashmir but we are totally clueless about North
east struggles, how women are struggling facing structural violence at each
level. These discussions not only broadened the perspective on Feminist
discourse but also left us with numerous questions to reflect upon.
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