‘Half Widows’: A Socioeconomic Study of the Survivors of Conflict in Occupied Kashmir

Abstract

This article focuses on half-widows in the Indian Occupied Kashmir, a socioeconomic phenomenon brought forth by political violence between India and Pakistan. Half widows are the surviving female partners of Kashmiri men who have gone missing due to illegal detention, extrajudicial killings, and in resistance movements. Women in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) are facing severe circumstances due to their husbands’ deaths and disappearances. As a result, these women have a variety of emotional, physical, mental, and social issues; and the subject of this paper is formulated around these issues related to women who fall in category of half-widows and how their rights are being violated in IOJK. Furthermore, a secondary focus of this study is on the practices that oppress and degrade women after their husband’s disappearance.