Yaarbal: Letters From Kashmir

Maaje Zevwe's project, ‘Yaarbal: Letters from Kashmir’ took place last year from May 2023 to November 2023. The project aimed at gathering diverse and dissenting voices of Kashmiri women in the form of letters—addressed to a friend, a parent, a lover, a ghost, a place or, to no one in particular. By using letter-writing as an anchor, we wanted to go beyond the nuances of ‘research’, where it is difficult for women to document their experiences; therefore, making them feel seen and heard, in and through these letters.

 

In these letters, we wanted Kashmiri women to be themselves by candidly sharing their emotions and experiences, and as a whole, imagine the revival of Kashmir's Yaarbal(s). The final seventeen letters, as you read them, attempt to add a unique dimension to the existing discourse in Kashmir by stimulating the informal documentation of Kashmiri women’s lived realities and memories.