"Half-Widows" in Kashmir

Srinagar, July 04: For the past twelve years, Naseema Mehja-ud-din has been waiting for news of her missing husband. Naseema says he was picked up by the Indian troops one night in 1997. A mother of two, she is one of Kashmir's hundreds of "half-widows" — women whose husbands disappeared after arrest by Indian armed forces.

Naseema Mehja-ud-din, "Half-Widow" says "I am waiting for my husband to return and I will keep waiting for him. I will not re-marry. The only thing that keeps me going in life is the hope that he will come back one day." Since 1989, 10,000 people have gone missing after being arrested, according to the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, an independent group in Kashmir. The wives now live in limbo, unable either to close an old chapter or to start a new one by re-marrying, leaving them labeled "half-widows".

Parveena Ahanger, Founder, APDP says "The court has taken out an order that for seven years half-widows cannot re-marry. They know they can re-marry after seven years, but they don't agree to marry after seven years. Some of them have three, four children. They know that no one will look after their children, so they don't re-marry."
  
Without proof of death, "half-widows" are not eligible for government compensation, nor can they claim the property of their husbands. NDTV-2009-7-3