Kashmir: A cultural crossroad

Women in Gutlibagh, Kashmir remain behind closed doors in the name of tradition

About an hour’s journey from Srinagar, Kashmir a road running between the vast paddy fields diverts towards a cluster of small villages called Gutlibagh. It is polling day in the village and men of different ages are gathered in small clusters in the village square chattering animatedly. A couple of metres away, two long queues of men crawl into different classrooms inside a heavily guarded government school to cast their vote. One of the Indian army officials on duty comments, “I have been here for the past two days and surprisingly I have not seen a single woman in this village. Not even today, on polling day!”

One rarely sees any women in public spaces in Gutlibagh. It is not common for the village’s female population to come out of their homes or work outside, and even if they do they are fully covered and accompanied by a male family member. The practice is in line with Pashtun traditions and rituals which were bought to this village more than half a century ago when at least 8,000 Pashtu-speaking migrants settled in Gutlibagh along with their families and have tightly guarded their culture ever since.

People waiting outside Gutlibagh polling booth to cast their votes.  PHOTOS: HAZIQ QADRI

 

Abdul Hameed Khan, 42, casts his vote inside a polling booth in Gutlibagh Ganderbal. Gutlibagh is a cluster of small villages  that houses a population of Afghan and Pakistan migrants. PHOTOS: HAZIQ QADRI

“Our culture is our identity and we have to preserve it to save our identity,” says Sanobar Khan, a naturopath whose ancestors moved to Gutlibagh from Jalalabad, Afghanistan in the 1940s. “Ours is a very small population and [the responsibility] to ensure that these traditions and culture is passed on to our new generation lies on our shoulders,” he adds. Khan is highly critical of things that can be categorised as ‘modern’ such as wearing jeans, listening to music, talking on the phone and even voting by women. “Like music, TV and other modern things, voting is considered forbidden among our women. There is no role of women in elections such as these, so we don’t allow them to vote,” he adds. The women’s votes were instead cast by the male family member in all previous elections. This year, however, the practice was disallowed by the Election Commission and a small number of women went to the polling booth during the afternoon when there were fewer men present at the site.

Due to the restrictions in place, nearly 70% of women in Gutlibagh are illiterate and only a handful work outside the house. “We do not let our daughters go to school because there are no separate schools for girls,” says Jameel Khan who has lived all his life in Kashmir but prefers speaking in Pashtu rather than Kashmiri. “Also it is prohibited in our culture for women to work outside their homes. Hence, you will not find many women here who work in offices.”

Jameel Khan, poses for a photograph outside a polling booth in Gutlibagh, Ganderbal. PHOTOS: HAZIQ QADRI

A link road that connects Gutlibagh to other villages. PHOTOS: HAZIQ QADRI

The older women in the village seem comfortable with compromising their freedom to preserve tradition. “We have been doing it for years. Our mothers and grandmothers have lived like this, so I do not have any problem with it,” says 35-year-old Shafeeqa Khan, a mother of two who has spent most of her life caring for her family. But from time to time when Shafeeqa sees young girls from the village going to school and even colleges, she feels a pang of regret. “I wish I had gone to school during my childhood too; things would have been nice. I feel disappointed when I am unable to understand what’s written in newspapers and books,” she says, adding that though times are changing in Gutlibagh, there is still need to encourage more girls to get an education. “We cannot let our girls remain illiterate in this age. We have to live with the rest of the world,” she says.



Tasleema Khan, who is one of the few girls in the village who have successfully pursued higher education, also believes that women in the village need to be educated but not at the cost of tradition and culture. “With changing times, we have to educate the women folk, but that should not mean that we abandon our lifestyle and follow others,” she says.

An exterior view of Hakeem Sanobar Khan’s house. PHOTOS: HAZIQ QADRI

These traditions are not limited to dress code and segregation of genders, but also extend to marriage. People in Gutlibagh do not marry outside their own tribe which is also one of the reasons why their culture has remained intact in its original form despite having been settled in Kashmir for so many years. Mohammad Tayub Khan, a retired police officer, says that until a few years ago, most people from outside the village were not even allowed to enter. “They were not really welcomed here because we did not want other people to come and disturb our culture,” he says. “That is one of the reasons we do not marry in other villages either.”

The Pathans of Gutlibagh do not generally mix with other Kashmiris. Villagers here speak only in Pashtu among themselves and only a handful speak and understand Kashmiri. However, Urdu is the second language for most people. Their staunch practices set them apart from rest of Kashmir where women also veil themselves but are not restricted in terms of mobility and the degree of gender segregation is also relatively low.



Jameel Khan and his nephew Tayub Khan, however, claim that things have started to change. Many young girls have started to go to colleges in Srinagar and other areas to pursue their education and young boys have made friends from other areas who sometimes visit this village. But the elders do not see it as a positive sign. “Progress is fine but we cannot afford to lose our identity which we have preserved so far with utmost care,” says Tayub. With its elders acting as vanguards of Pahstun culture, remaining abreast with the world while staying rooted in history appears to be a handicap for the younger generation. 

With additional reporting by Ruwa Shah.

Haziq Qadri is a Kashmir-based photojournalist. He tweets @haziq_qadri

Qadri Inzamam is a freelance journalist based in Kashmir. He tweets @Qadri_Inzamam

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, December 21^st, 2014.