Kashmiri militants hide behind the veil
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Barely seven months after a failed attempt at enforcing the imposition of the burqa (a black cloak that covers a woman from head to toe, including her face) on women in Indian-administered Kashmir, the Lashkar-e-Jabbar (LeJ) is back at cultural and moral policing again.
Renewing its burqa campaign in the Kashmir Valley, the LeJ has threatened to throw acid on Kashmiri Muslim women who defy its diktat. In addition to the imposition of the burqa on women, the LeJ has warned cable channel operators to stop telecasting channels that are "not morally and culturally suitable" for Kashmiris.
The LeJ, a little known militant group operating in Kashmir, shot into prominence in August of last year when it claimed responsibility for throwing acid on two women who had not worn the veil. It then announced that acid would be thrown on Kashmiri women who did not cover themselves with the burqa by September 1. That deadline was subsequently extended to September 10.
Strongly endorsing the LeJ's campaign was Asiya Andrabi, founder and leader of the all-women separatist group, the Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM). She had been at the forefront of enforcing an earlier burqa campaign in the early 1990s. Andrabi and her band of burqa-clad women are known to have thrown acid and paint on women who did not wear the burqa, an allegation the DeM leader strongly denied in an interview to this correspondent in 2001.
Efforts to rule by fundamentalist edict have existed from the early days of the uprising in the Kashmir Valley. As early as 1990, even the supposedly secular Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), its Islamic credentials under attack, collaborated with moves to forcibly close down liquor shops and cinema halls. Soon after came the dress diktat imposed by an assortment of militant groups, such as the Hizbul Mujahideen, Allah Tigers and the Hezbollah. Women were ordered to wear the burqa and banned from using makeup or wearing ornaments. Then came a ban on abortions and the use of contraceptives.
Kashmiri tradition does not require women to wear the burqa. The Islam that has been practiced in the region is a liberal Sufi Islam, quite different from the kind militants from Afghanistan or Pakistan have imported into the state. Kashmiri women cover their heads with a headscarf or a hijab, but even that was not widely practiced in the capital Srinagar in the 1980s.
The militant dress diktat is therefore deeply resented in Kashmir and any effort of them to impose a dress code has been challenged by the women. While the militants never lifted the diktat imposed in the early 1990s, they slowly backed off and stopped enforcing it at gunpoint, as popular opposition to their methods was considerable. Besides, as the Indian security forces gained the upper hand and flushed out the militants from Srinagar and the other main towns, women emboldened by the absence of the militants openly defied the dress code. By 1999-2000, the burqa had become a rarity on the streets of Srinagar. It was even more of a rarity in rural Kashmir.
Young girls, especially of the middle and upper classes, styled their hair and used makeup forbidden by the militants. Some paid a heavy price for the defiance. Four years ago, a teenage girl was shot in the legs for wearing jeans and a pullover and not covering her head. In 2000, another girl was shot in the legs for wearing jeans and cycling on the streets of Srinagar. There were instances when unidentified gunmen stormed beauty salons and sprayed bullets to force the owners to shut down their business. But these were isolated cases of coercion.
Then in August 2001, the Lashkar-e-Jabbar announced its edict - women were ordered to "be modest and wear the burqa, or face consequences". The consequences were made clear when the LeJ claimed responsibility for throwing acid on two women for not obeying the dress code. The response was immediate. Women scurried to the tailors to get themselves burqas. But even as they bought them, now priced three times as high as before, they grumbled. This was not a part of their tradition.
The imposition of the burqa in 2001 was due to the Talibanization of the militant movement. While the militancy was largely indigenous in the first couple of years of the uprising, the foreign element has steadily increased over the years. The dress edict was part of the drive to cleanse the movement of its Kashmiri content, people argued. Those behind the diktat were also making a tidy fortune out of the sale of burqas, they pointed out.
As during the earlier burqa campaign, women opposed the diktat as a matter of principle. However, in a break from the past, militant groups such as the Hizbul Mujahideen and sections of the separatist Hurriyat Conference spoke out against coercing women to wear the burqa. They were not against the burqa, they said, and believed that women should wear it. But they should be convinced, not coerced, they pointed out. Clearly, these groups were unwilling to sacrifice popular support among women for the sake of the burqa.
As the September 10 deadline neared, more and more Kashmiri women donned the burqa. They lost their identity as their faces vanished behind the veil.
And then on September 11 came the terrorist attacks in the US. The impact on Kashmir was significant. The war against terrorism and the subsequent defeat of the Taliban and the al-Qaeda, and Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf's about-turn on the Taliban threw the militant groups operating in Kashmir into disarray. With the Taliban defeated, edicts imposed by groups that followed their ideology were openly challenged. As Afghan women lifted their veils, Kashmiri women - known for defying diktats in the past - followed suit. The attitude was that if Afghan women could remove their burqa, so could the women in Kashmir.
The LeJ's burqa campaign, like its predecessor in the early 1990s, simply fizzled out. So last week's reimposition of the dress code seems to be an attempt by the LeJ leadership, which was forced to lie low because of popular sentiment against it, to capture media attention again.
Announcing the renewal of its campaign last week, LeJ chief commander Irfan Jameel said that the group had stopped its activities for some time. "We have now learnt that people are not adhering to the moral social values. Therefore, we have decided to streamline our activities and start our purdah [veil] campaign again," he said.
Will the LeJ succeed this time round? Unlikely, it seems, if the past is any indicator. Militant groups far more strong and with a wider network have failed to impose their diktats on Kashmiris. It might succeed in imposing the burqa and banning entertainment for a short while, but not in the long run.
Bollywood movies are immensely popular in Kashmir, and as in the rest of India movie stars such as Hrutik Roshan and Preity Zinta (who starred in the blockbuster Mission Kashmir) have a huge fan following across the Valley. The only functioning cinema hall in Srinagar is located in the high-security cantonment area. Youngsters are willing to suffer the long wait at the security checkpoint to be able to see the latest Hindi movie being screened there. And of course, any movie is available on video cassettes; a flow that no militant group can effectively stop.
It is the Indian security forces that are behind the imposition of the burqa, allege the militant groups, claiming that it is India's way of tarnishing their reputation and undermining their support among the people. But while the imposition of the burqa does serve to weaken popular support for the militants, having to deal with an ocean of burqa-clad women is the Indian security forces worst nightmare come true. The anonymity that the burqa provides is something that the security forces simply cannot tackle. It is widely accepted that militants wearing burqas can slip past the security forces undetected. Besides, weapons are moved across easily under a burqa. In fact, officers in the counterinsurgency unit of the Jammu and Kashmir police force maintain that the imposition of the burqa on the female population has more to do with the militants' military strategy than with their religious ideology.
Security in and around girls' schools and colleges in Srinagar has been tightened to prevent any incidents of acid throwing on women.
"When men come under pressure from the army or the militants, it was women who went out on the streets defying batons and bullets to protest the injustice," says Saeeda, a 21-year old woman student at a college in Srinagar. "But when we are under pressure, they look the other way or support the injustice," she points out. "As on previous occasions, we will just stop wearing the burqa after some time," she says. "There is no other way we can get the message across."
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