Zahida War, Author at INVERSE JOURNAL

Zahida War

Zahida War is an aspiring trauma psychologist currently pursuing a Master's in "War and Psychiatry" at King’s College London. She believes that healing and reconciliation are the stepping stones for the resolution of the Kashmir conflict. She finds writing about her experiences of growing up in Kashmir as a personal healing process.

Homecoming — by Zahida War

May 14, 2020 | Fiction

Zahida War presents a piece of fiction that combines poetry and prose to narrate the story of a young Kashmiri woman, Zooni, who returns to her birthplace after living abroad (India) for several years. In the process of her return, Zooni becomes raveled in the militarized reality of Kashmir and its grotesque violence, far from the touristic imaginarium that her host country had built in her mind. Still a young student, Zooni leaves all familiarity behind, along with the illusions formed in her understanding of Kashmir, to engage with a place that is confined to countless devastations, multiple horrors and endless human tragedies. This fictional piece was written in 2016, a painfully symbolic year for Kashmiris, and is accompanied by an afterword by its author.