Institutional Intersectionality: Violence against Kashmiri Women in ‘The Half Mother’

Abstract

In the present world, identity and identity formation determines the representation and manners of interaction. Intersectionality has become the predominant way of conceptualizing the relation between systems of oppression which construct our multiple identities and our social locations in hierarchies of power and privilege. This research examines ways in which marginalization and state-sponsored violence against Kashmiri women results from intersectional identity. The phenomenon of Kashmiri women becoming ‘half widows’ and ‘half mothers’ as the consequence of intersecting variables has been explored in the context of Shahnaz Bashir’s novel The Half Mother (2014). The findings suggest the various facets of Kashmiri women’s identity which lead to her oppressed status. It gives a deep insight into the female sufferings in particular and miseries of Kashmir conflict victims in general, it also throws light on the ways these human sufferings get depicted in literature.