A conference titled, “PTSD: A WOMAN’S BATTLE IN CONLICT ZONES” would be held at European Parliament in Brussels next week.
The conference would be organized by Kashmir Council Europe (KC-EU) with support of MEPs Wajid Khan, Julie Ward and Dr Sajjad Karim.
Senior academics, members of civil society, representatives of European institutions and NGOs will be speakers of the conference to be held on the International Women’s Day, 8th of March. It is part of an awareness campaign of Kashmir Council EU for rememorizing a 27-year Old tragic incident of Kunan-Poshpora’s villages of Indian Held Kashmir.
It is essential to recap that it was night of February 23, 1991, the personnel of the 4 Rajputana Rifles of Indian Army cordoned off the two villages Kunan and Poshpora in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district under garb of house to house search and gangraped dozens of the women of these villages.
Every year since 2014, 23rd February is commemorated as Kashmiri Women’s Resistance Day, inspired by the struggles of the survivors of the mass rape and torture in the twin Kashmiri villages of Kunan and Poshpora. The two and a half decades–long struggle of the survivors from Kunan and Poshpora is a part of the larger ongoing struggle in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, against the institutionalized and structural violence of the Indian State in the region.
The conference on 8th March at European parliament in Brussels will explore the need for mental health counselling and therapy for women suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of trauma (such as rape, abuse, etc.). Mental health disorders and psychosocial problems arising from conflict need to be addressed as part of post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation efforts, the statement said.
In a statement, Chairman Kashmir Council EU Ali Raza Syed called upon international community to pressurize India in order to strictly punish its security personnel involved in human rights violations specially culprits of 27-year old mass-rape incident of Kunan-Poshpora villages in occupied Kashmir.
Kashmir Council EU launched a two-week campaign on Friday, 23rd February 2018 for rememorizing ruthless 27-year old forgotten incident of Kunan Poshpora in Indian occupied Kashmir.
Mr Ali RazaSyed said, beside this terrible episode, there are thousands of women in IHK who are waiting for their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers forcibly disappeared by Indian forces.
Kashmiri women have been the worst victims of violations by Indian troops in the territory for last 70 years as a large number of Kashmiri women lost their men. Kashmiri women remembered their hardships because their life has been directly affected by India state terrorism.
He pledged the Kashmir Council EU’s support for human rights including women rights in Indian Held Kashmir and urged that human right violations in IHK should be stopped.
