Seminar: Feminist Perspectives on Kashmir. NKO's Seminar at Feminist Festival 2018, Malmö

Nordic Kashmir Organisation (NKO)'s Seminar at Feminist Festival 2018

Seminar Topic: Feminist Perspectives on Kashmir
Panelist: Dr Nitasha Kaul, Westminster University, London & Dr. Emma Brännlund, University of the West of England, Bristol

Time To: Unite, Mobilize, Act!
Feministisk Festival, Malmö Sweden 1-3rd of June
https://feministiskfestival.se/
https://feministiskfestival.se/program/
https://www.facebook.com/feministiskfestival/


This event will explore the role of gender in reproducing militarisation and resistance in Kashmir. The centre of both a geopolitical territorial struggle between India and Pakistan and a resistance movement against the Indian Government, Kashmir is one of the most militarised areas in the world. As in many other contexts, militarisation in Kashmir is decidedly gendered, dominated by masculine power and violence that have immersed all aspects of social and political life. At this event, we will consider how gendered notions of nation/s and nationalism/s are conceptualised in discourse on Kashmir? What role do the state and state actors play in reproducing gender norms? How are binaries of militant/civilian, agent/victim constituted by gendered language? How do gender norms and practices facilitate resistance in Kashmir? Ultimately, we will reflect on how to reimagine politics in Kashmir and whether this can be done within a state-centric framework. This raises questions on how to open up politics to all groups in society, address causes and effects of violence, and ensure that justice is accessed by all.


Dr Nitasha Kaul is a Kashmiri novelist, poet, academic, artist and economist who lives in London. Her debut novel ‘Residue’ (Rupa/Rainlight, 2014) about Kashmiris and the politics of identity across nation-state borders was earlier shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Aside from fiction and poetry, she comments in the media, addresses audiences within and outside academia, and has written in edited collections, journals, and newspapers on themes relating to identity, democracy, political economy, feminist and postcolonial critiques, Bhutan and Kashmir. She holds a joint doctorate in Economics and Philosophy, and is the author of the book ‘Imagining Economics Otherwise: encounters with identity/difference’ (Routledge, 2007). Her work, over a decade and a half, has been multidisciplinary; she has been an Assistant Professor in Economics at the Bristol Business School and an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the Royal Thimphu College in Bhutan. She is now an Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster in London. See www.nitashakaul.com and Nitasha Kaul

Dr. Emma Brännlund, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)
Doctoral Studies Title: “Narrating In/Security: Women’s Activism in Kashmir”.
Stoppa blodbadet i Kashmir [Stop the killings in Kashmir]. SVT Opinion. 29 July. Available at: https://www.svt.se/opinion/stoppa-blodbadet-i-kashmir.


Nordic Kashmir Organisation (NKO)
The association aims and objectives The association's overall purpose is to promote Kashmiri interests in cultural activities, for example to protect small dying languages, highlight social aspects, as well as disseminate knowledge and raise awareness of the political and human rights situation in Kashmir.
The association aims to increase knowledge of the Kashmiri identity and contribute to the cohesion between various groups in the Nordic and EU countries.
The association's goal is to promote cultural and social cooperation between Nordic, EU and Kashmiri organizations.
The association also aims to support democracy and freedom of speech in Kashmir. The association is inclusive of all democratic, political and religious affiliations.

The association may perform activities of a political nature, but not a partisan body