“Every day I keep waiting for Fareed.” One morning Fourten years ago Arsha’s forty seven year old husband went to work, but never came back. Since she cannot resign herself to forget him.
As Arsha, there are thousands in Kashmir who call themselves the Half widows name which has entered the language in this state on the northern border of India and the north eastern border of Pakistan were both countries have been fighting for more than twenty years.
Since 1989 between 8000 and 10 000 men are missing signaled among others by Amnesty International.
Many husband like Fareed are missing for unknown reasons, suspected and arrested without proof by the Indian army for being freedom fighters. These women now face severe financial problems on top of the difficulty of not being widows since the men are not officially declared dead until a lapse of twenty five years; They cannot get a widow’s pension. Some take the decision to remarry to provide for their children but if this is not forbidden it is very rare in this conservative muslim society of Kashmir. Most can only benefit from family or local solidarity to feed their children.
In spite of the silence of the indian authorities embarrassedd by the fresh revelations of Wikileaks on the torture perpetuated in the jails of Kashmir and of the silence of the army who deny anyresponsibilityy in the flurry of disappearance, those of the women who have the means go to the capital Srinagar for a pacific demonstration to ask for the truth and for justice.
Juliette Robert is a 30 old freelance photographer based in Paris.
She started in the music industry for rock magazines, and joined the freelance journalists collective Youpress in 2008. She is now represented by Wostok Press agency. Juliette Robert is one of the “coups de coeur” of the french association, ANI, Association Nationale des Iconographes.
