Parveena Ahanger

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Parveena Ahangar
Born
Other namesIron Lady of Kashmir
Occupation(s)Chairperson, Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP)
Known for
Website http://www.apdpkashmir.com

Parveena Ahangar (born in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir) is the Founder and Chairperson of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) in Jammu and Kashmir.

Contents

Parveena Ahangar, was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize 2005 . She won the Rafto Prize for Human Rights in 2017 for her “protests against enforced disappearances” and for demanding justice for victims of violence in Jammu and Kashmir. [1] [2] She was named as one of the BBC 100 Women, a list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2019. [3]

Parveena is referred to as the 'Iron lady of Kashmir'. [3] She was nominated by the Indian media Channel CNN IBN for an award which she rejected on account of the deceitful approach by Indian media over the pain and tragedies of Kashmiris. [4]

Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons

Parveena started the "Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons" in 1994 to provide support and mobilize family members of missing persons due to enforced disappearances and to put pressure on India's government to investigate the estimated 8-10,000 cases of involuntary disappearances in Kashmir. [5] The organization is part of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances. [6]

Parveena Ahanger, co-founder and chairman of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, has represented APDP’s cause in the Philippines (2000), Thailand (2003), Indonesia (2005), Chiang Mai (2006), Geneva (2008), Cambodia (2009) and London (2014). [7]

Lecture at the University of Westminster

Ahanger spoke at London's University of Westminster in 2014. [8]

Related Research Articles

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An enforced disappearance is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the intent of placing the victim outside the protection of the law. Often, forced disappearance implies murder whereby a victim is abducted, may be illegally detained, and is often tortured during interrogation, ultimately killed, and the body disposed of secretly. The party committing the murder has plausible deniability as there is no evidence of the victim's death.

The Rafto Foundation for Human Rights was established in 1986 in memory of Thorolf Rafto, a professor of economic history at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) and a human rights activist. The main objective of the Rafto Foundation is the promotion of freedom of political expression and enterprise. The work of the foundation consists of different educational and informative projects, including the annual award of the Rafto Prize (Raftoprisen) each November. The foundation is based in Bergen, Norway and run by a small team of professionals and volunteers.

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The insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, also known as the Kashmir insurgency, is an ongoing separatist militant insurgency against the Indian administration in Jammu and Kashmir, a territory constituting the southwestern portion of the larger geographical region of Kashmir, which has been the subject of a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947.

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The Shopian rape and murder case, also known as Asiya, Neelofar case, is the abduction, rape and murder case of two young women allegedly by the CRPF. In mysterious circumstances between 29 and 30 May 2009 at Bongam, Shopian district in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Two women, who were sisters-in-law went missing from their orchard on the way home on 29 May 2009. The next morning, their bodies were found both one kilometer apart. Local police rejected the allegations saying that the women appeared to have drowned in a stream.On June 22 of 2023, the Jammu and Kashmir administration terminated two doctors, Dr. Bilal Ahmad Dalal and Dr. Nighat Shaheen Chilloo, for allegedly "actively working" with Pakistan-based groups and falsifying evidence in the case. According to officials, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) found that the deaths of Asiya Jan and Neelofar on May 29, 2009, were due to accidental drowning, not rape or murder. The doctors allegedly manipulated the post-mortem report to frame security forces, aiming to incite disaffection against the Indian state. The CBI has charge-sheeted them for fabricating evidence, accusing them of conspiring with Pakistan-linked assets in Kashmir to distort the truth of the incident.

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AasiaJeelani (1974–2004) was a Kashmiri journalist and human rights activist. After completing her studies in Srinagar, Kashmir, she worked for Agence France Presse (AFP) and then the Times of India. She set up the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and the Kashmiri Women's Initiative for Peace and Disarmament (KWIPD), editing the latter's newsletter. On 20 April 2004, Jeelani and other activists were monitoring elections when the car she was travelling in was blown up by an improvised explosive device and she was killed. She is remembered as a pioneering feminist journalist.

References

  1. "Parveena Ahangar, Parvez Imroz Awarded Norway's Rafto Prize for Human Rights". The Wire. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  2. "Parveena Ahangar & Parvez Imroz". The Rafto Foundation. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  3. 1 2 "BBC 100 Women 2019". BBC News. 15 October 2019.
  4. "Mother's Day Special: Parveena Ahengar, Mouj of Kasheer". Archived from the original on 3 March 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
  5. "Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons | Cultures of Resistance". culturesofresistance.org. 9 April 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  6. "Annual Report 2018" (PDF). Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances. 16 October 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 July 2021. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
  7. "Remembering those in Kashmir who exist but are missing". 6 September 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
  8. "Parveena Ahnager speaking at University of Warwick, UK". Kashmir Life . 26 April 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2021.