By Tejaswini Pagadala

What started off as a peaceful musical journey ended abruptly on a rather cacophonous note for Kashmir’s first all-girl rock band after they received rape and death threats from fringe groups via social networking sites, emails and text message.

The members of the band Pragaash, meaning First Light, confirmed their disbanding on Tuesday after Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad, Kashmir’s state-appointed cleric, issued a Fatwa against the band on Sunday, denouncing them as ​“unIslamic”.

Breaking their silence after the recent developments, one of the band members who spoke on a TV channel said: ​“We just quit because of the people of Kashmir. We didn’t know they were unhappy with our music. So…as Mufti Sahib said… it is ​‘unIslamic’, we think we should not continue. That is why we disbanded. And, all the bands in Kashmir, in our support have disbanded.”

Further, she said: ​“We’re not continuing with music anymore. As Mufti sahib said, we respect him; we respect the people of Kashmir and their opinions…so…that is why we quit.” The class X girls’ band was formed by Aneeka Khalid, the guitarist along with Noma Nazir Bhatt – vocalist and Farah Deeba – the drummer.

The Grand Mufti, on Sunday, issued a statement saying: ​“When girls and young women stray from the rightful path… this kind of non-serious activity can become the first step towards our destruction.”

This misogynistic threat to silence young girls of the valley points to an escalating conflict between modernity and religious traditions. While such incidents also raise the ambiguous definitions of morality, decency and such like, what lurks behind is the persistent gender inequality.

On the other hand, online abuse also brings freedom of expression into play. While abuse is a reality of the Internet, it is also a reminder of the fact that it is not only religious or political outfits that preach for curbs on the freedom of expression but also the junta themselves.

How it all started

Pragaash’s first public performance was in December 2012 in Srinagar where they won the third place in an annual ​“Battle of the Bands” concert that was organized by an Indian paramilitary force, as part of a campaign to win hearts and minds in the region.

For some fringe elements in the valley, the rock show neither won their hearts nor minds, but became a tool to get abusive in the name of religion. Soon after the show, Kashmiri pages on Facebook debated the band. Some conservative users got abusive, calling them ​“sluts and prostitutes” and demanded their expulsion from the region.

The band’s manager Adnan Mattoo had said that the teens broke down after seeing the abusive comments online. However, he remains silent on Pragaash’s disbanding.

The news of abuse and opposition against the band was first published on a news portal called the Kashmirwala, said Shehla R. Shora, Project Officer of Internet Democracy Project and an activist who has been instrumental in gathering support for Pragaash on Facebook.

Shehla and Raheel Khurshid, Director, Communications at Change​.org and a few Kashmiris got together to counter the online abuse against these girls. ​“We mobilized organic Kashmiri support for them (Pragaash),” said Khurshid, complaining that ​“the media then took note of the story and framed it as an Islamic radicalization issue. The politicians hijacked it further resulting in the girls disbanding post the state sponsored Mufti’s fatwa.”

The girls soon became a reason for political conflict when Jammu and Kashmir’s chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted that ​“the talented teenagers should not let themselves be silenced by a handful of morons” and promised a police enquiry into the issue.

Events took an ugly turn when Kashmir’s main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, criticized the CM for selectively supporting freedom of expression and said the band’s concert was ​“a step toward diverting young girls toward Westernization.”

Later, Abdullah tweeted: ​“Given the importance people attach to the Fatwas of the Grand Mufti, the less said the better.”

Eventually, the whole issue got trivialized and was reduced to a conflict between the fundamentalists and the government, lament activists.

Is it Islamic or not?

According to Shehla, who has been gathering support for the band on Facebook, ​“Such incidents are an everyday thing in Kashmir. But the rape threats are new, not something that is usual. I’ve been here all my life. It was brave of the girls to come out and do something different. Their music has nothing to do with Islam.”

Shehla adds that the controversy and rape threats are sending chills down the spines of parents who might stop girls from breaking gender stereotypes, fearing these religious outfits. ​“On one side there is remarkable support pouring in for the girls. On the other, the Fatwa has cultivated fear among parents, she reveals.

“Kashmir also has male rock bands. There are (male) rock bands whose lyrics are explicit. Why these double standards?” she questions. In fact, many members of various Kashmiri rock bands have raised similar questions on why the religious outfits were only targeting women.

Demanding the Grand Mufti to step down from his chair, Omar Bashir has filed an online petition. The controversy also led to the debate on whether it is ​‘unIslamic’ for Kashmiri women to indulge in music. Raheel says ​“Kashmir has had a long tradition of celebration of its female singers and poets. Kashmiri girls are empowered and walk shoulder to shoulder with their counterparts in all walks of life. The stereotypes about Kashmiri women as such are wrong.”

Kashmir’s history has had stalwarts like Raj Begum, Shameema Azad (wife of India’s health minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad), Kailash Mehra and Mehmeet Syed. Raj Begum was even awarded Padma Shri in 2002. However, that cultural heritage took a beating when the militants began their armed campaign two decades ago to gain independence for Indian-controlled Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan. After a series of crackdowns including torture, kidnapping, extortion and murder waned in the recent years, music shows and theatre performances re-emerged. But, the limitations and the tension still remain.

The Human Development Report of 2011 says that India ranks 129 out of 146 countries on the Gender Inequality Index, below Bangladesh and Pakistan. It is surveys and news like these that show that the fight for gender rights in India is a long and arduous one. The girl’s disbanding is yet another reminder of how hard the journey to gender equality is going to be.