It was not rape, it was war — That night in Kunan Poshpora

Every now and again, in the life of a feminist publisher, a book comes along that moves beyond the world of words, into real battles and real campaigns. Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora, written by five young women from Kashmir, is one such book. Since it came out, and indeed while it was being written, it became an important tool in the battle for justice for the victims and survivors of the infamous mass rape by the Indian army in the villages of Kunan and Poshpora in 1991. In this, the book achieved what it set out to do, but it did, indeed it does, much more. In many ways the experience of researching and writing it transformed the lives of the writers, for whom the act of retrieving memory and of seeking justice for a forgotten historical moment, melded seamlessly into each other. Equally, it became for us, as feminist publishers, a process of creating collective knowledge, and of producing it together with its creators and with its subjects. We’ve been proud, and fortunate, to publish this book and to send it into the world for the voices within it to be heard and attended to.—Urvashi Butalia.

Women Victims/Survivors According to the women, ‘rape’ is not an adequate word to describe what was done to them. It was not rape—it was war. Women were caught and held by a minimum of 5-6 army men as their husbands, fathers and sons were forcefully separated from them. Pushed to the walls, they shouted and screamed for help, for mercy. Their screams were not answered. Guns were pointed at their chests and mouths. They were told not to shout or else they would be shot. Army men were drunk, and were seen drinking during the operations. They smelled of liquor. They tore the women’s pherans (long traditional gowns worn over the clothes). They pulled down their trousers and raped them. While raping them they continued to consume liquor. They took turns, and sometimes took two rounds of a particular house. The women resisted but in vain. Minor girls, those dumb…


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