Communiqué
Kashmir is a Pivotal Area of South Asia & its History & People are Complex
< < Back toKashmir is a region located high in the Himalayan Mountains between two historical adversaries: India and Pakistan. It was partitioned in the 1940’s at the end of British colonial rule but it remains a point of unrest even today.
Over the past decades, Kashmir has been a battleground for skirmishes and armed conflict between the two nuclear powers of India and Pakistan. It is part of the geo-political tug of war between these two powers.
However, many groups within Kashmir are pushing for independence from both countries.
Kashmir is the focus of research for Dr. Haley Duschinski, the Director and Graduate Director of the Center for Law, Justice, and Culture at Ohio University. She recently returned from Brussels and the European Parliament’s human rights subcommittee hearing on Kashmir.
She also attended the United Nation’s Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva and conducted a human rights visit to Northern Ireland.
Although India and Pakistan continue to fight over the Kashmir region, many Kashmir residents are seeking independence from both countries and to establish their own country. In fact, many groups within the region feel that Kashmir is an “occupied territory.”
Dr. Duschinski, an anthropologist, studies, researches and writes about the human rights of the Kashmir people and especially the women of the region.
Recently, she was one of the editors of critical Kashmir studies resource: “Women and Kashmir: Knowing in Our Own Ways.” It was published by the Review of Women’s Studies, Economic and Political Weekly.
She also has co-edited “Resisting Occupation in Kashmir” published in 2018 by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
She, likewise, co-edited “’Rebels of the Streets: Violence, Protest and Freedom in Kashmir,” in Resisting Occupation in Kashmir, also published in 2018 by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Dr. Duschinski is an award-winning teacher and scholar. Among her specialties are the studies of Kashmir, India and South Asia.
She plans to return to the region this summer to further her research and to advance the causes of human rights.