Mary Scully Reports

This is a powerful protest from Sharika Amin via Hameem Fayaz about the Indian occupation in his Kashmiri hometown.

Dated 16 September 2019, Dialgam

I was on the first floor of our house, that faces the main road. Hearing commotion outside, I rushed to the window and was encountered by glass shards all over my face, that missed my eyes by a whisker but ended up hurting my feet, that left a big stain of blood on the carpet. There was mayhem outside with the army ruthlessly breaking windows of our entire neighborhood, and scores of vehicles arriving near our door. And inside, my cousins ran up to alert everyone shouting” army aai, army aai”. With men frantically rushing to secure the door, women huddling kids together and rushing to the safer spots at home. The entire neighborhood blanketed in an omnious silence, the only sounds being whispers of prayers to Allah, ,your own heartbeat which you think will stop at any moment and the sound of oppression that grew louder with each stone that was hurled and each abuse that they promised to carry out…
So the next time you hear everything is normal in kashmir ( or dare tell me)
Remember that,
It is not normal to chase young children with guns.
It is not normal to barge in my home.
It is not normal to be scared being in your own home.
It is not normal for my car and window panes to be broken.
It is not normal for my heart to race as soon as I watch a military vehicle.
It is not normal to huddle in fear as soon as you hear sirens.
It is not normal for anyone to own our roads, our homes.
It is not normal for anyone to control our movement, our speech, our dissent.
And if it is normal, I wish you the same normal.
And if it is not, I wish you the courage and conscience to say so.