“I raise up my voice-not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.”

Malala Yousafzai

In Nov 2016, eight year old Tajamul Islam from Bandipora, Kashmir made the country proud and created history by defeating her rival from USA to win the world championship for kick boxing held in Andria, Italy. Coming from a humble background, her father, Ghulam Mohammad Lone is a driver for a construction company.This little girl’s story is inspiring and a shining beacon of hope for young Kashmiri women who wish to break free from being relegated to the backseat in this regressive Pakistan sponsored separatist agenda in Kashmir.

With the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir in August 2019, young Kashmiri women now see an opportunity not from the prism of a small mountain village pushed into submission by false belief that women are not created equal but from a far reaching vision of freedom and unlimited avenues that is presented to them by this movement of progress and growth that India has embarked upon.With an ocean of opportunities now thrown open, the women of Kashmir can now hope for a better future and aspire to reach greater heights and achieve success like their role models such as Dr Ruveda Salam, the first woman IPS officer from Kashmir and Dr Syed Sehrish Asgar, the woman IAS officer from Kashmir who now serves as the Director of Information in the newly formed Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

Kashmir now yearns for more success stories and can positively hope that dreams and aspirations of its daughters can be realized, bringing them out from the shadows to lead them to a bright new future filled with equal opportunities that peace and stability promises to bring to Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.