An open Letter to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

Most Respected Mirwaiz Sahib,

Like many others, I too have been following the ongoing puerile debate over recent Sadbhavana tour organised by the army for girl students from Srinagar. However, even though I personally feel that the girl participants have been wrongly victimised, I preferred not to speak out for the simple reason that I didn’t want to get involved in a senseless tirade with Kashmir’s moral brigade and thereby prolong the agony the girls must be going though.

When Ms Asiya Andrabi of the Dukhtaran- e- Milat chose to warn parents against sending their daughter for this trip instead of politely requesting them I felt enraged but knowing her style of working I elected to keep quiet. I continued maintaining my silence when the Harkat-ul- Mujahideen made a similar appeal to parents and even when Hurriyat (G) chairman expressed unhappiness over this girl student’s tour, I chose not to react as I am aware that Geelani sahib has a serious problem with anything that comes under the category of what we refer to as co-curricular activities. However, when I read your statement that some parents are making a joke of their dignity by sending their daughters to participate in Indian army’s operation Sadbhavana programme, I could not hold myself back and so this letter.

Mirwaiz Sahib, I fully appreciate and share your concern regarding the declining religious, moral and societal values in Kashmir. However, I have failed to comprehend how the parents who sent their daughters for the Sadbhavana tour lowered their dignity?  I know that it is not your habit to make statements without substantiating what you say, but this time you did and that is why your statement took me by surprise.

I do agree that the recent Sadbhavana tour for girl students has created a controversy of sorts due to a video posted on social media supposedly showing the girl participants in casual dress dancing with army men. However, no sooner had this video gone viral, the participants who went on this Sadbhavana tour clarified that none of the girls appearing in the video were part of the tour. Scrutiny of the video confirms what the girls have said and from the attire of the men seen dancing in the video it is evident that they are not from the Indian army but the BSF. Hence it is evident that these girls have been made the butt of a repulsive prank!

So, when these girl students have done nothing objectionable, why are they been targeted through their parents? Is it simply because they disregarded the appeals from various quarters and went ahead with their trip? Sir, you felt extremely hurt when India called off foreign secretary talks last year since Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India decided to disregard New Delhi’s advice to him not to meet the Hurriyat leaders. Your angst was justified as such meetings had a precedent there was no reason for New Delhi to act the way it did. Mirwaiz sahib, just like your meetings with the Pakistan High Commissioner, girls have been going on Sadbhavana tours for years and thus this event also has a precedent. So if parents sent their daughters on this particular Sadbhavana tour, how were they “making a joke of their dignity”?

The next issue is regarding your own educational background and I’m only bringing this in as it is necessary to make an important point. By virtue of being born in the house of the Mirwaiz, you were ordained to step into the shoes of your father and be Mirwaiz one day. Therefore, for you it was higher education in Islamic studies that mattered and it made little difference as to where you attained your basic education. Yet your parents chose to send you to a missionary school and I’m sure this was not to make a social statement. They obviously did so because like any parent they too had your overall personality development in mind and knew that the academic syllabus and co-curricular activities programme followed in missionary schools would put you at an advantage. So, why do you have an aversion to Kashmiri girls visiting renowned educational institutes, historical places, and recreational spots or meet eminent public figures?

Your assertion that no other religion attaches so much importance to education as Islam is indisputable and so is your view of waywardness and moral degradation in the name of education being unacceptable. I am neither a fan of the Indian army nor a beneficiary of any Sadbhavana programme and so what I say is not influenced by any extraneous factor. Sir, I truly feel sad when I find that even a discerning person like you has succumbed to the temptation of playing to the gallery and made the waywardness and moral degradation comment specifically in relation to the Sadbhavana tour even though there is not even a shred of evidence to suggest that the girls were in any way involved in any immoral activity.

Mirwaiz sahib, I probably still would have never addressed an open letter to you had it not been for a casual statement made the other day by a colleague that completely shook me. After reading your comments she remarked, It’s really surprising how Kashmiris don’t even mind disgracing their own girls by attacking their character just for the sake of embarrassing the army and she followed this up by saying one had read the phrase cutting the nose to spite the face in school, but it’s only now that I’ve come across a live example! I was devastated.

Signing-off in the hope that prevention of character assassination is one issue that would be included in your moral degradation and waywardness eradication programme.

–Niloofar Qureshi
[email protected]

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