Through Her Eyes: Art as Emotional and Political Expression Among Kashmiri Women

Abstract

Situated amid prolonged political conflict and entrenched patriarchy, despite bearing disproportionate psychological burdens, Kashmiri women remain marginalized in artistic and scholarly accounts. This study examines how Kashmiri women artists employ visual art as emotional expression and political testimony. Grounded in a feminist framework integrating lived-experience epistemology, affect theory, critiques of patriarchy, and Cixous’s écriture féminine, we conducted semi-structured interviews with five Kashmiri women artists alongside visual-textual analysis of their work created between 2021 and 2023. Findings reveal dominant themes of grief, longing, resilience, and deep ties to homeland, with art serving as both personal catharsis and subtle resistance. Visual motifs—color, symbolism, and abstraction—encoded layered critiques of gendered and sociopolitical constraints. Participants navigated intersecting challenges, including patriarchal norms, self-censorship, and digital pressures. This study concludes that art is a crucial space through which Kashmiri women process trauma, assert agency, and preserve cultural memory, collectively challenging erasure and simplistic narratives of victimhood.