Asiya Andrabi

Asiya Andrabi
Born	1962
Occupation	Chairman Dukhtaran-e-Millat
Nationality	Pakistani
Ethnicity	Kashmiri
Alma mater	Kashmir University
Spouse	Ashiq Hussain Faktoo (in jail for 23 years)
Children	Muhamaad bin Qasim (23 years old) Ahmed bin Qasim (15 years old)

Asiya Andrabi, a pro-Pakistan separatist, is the founding leader of Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of the nation). This Islamic group is part of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference in the Kashmir valley. The main aim of the organisation is to work for separation of Kashmir from India. Asiya Andrabi remains one of the most important women separatists in the valley. The stereotypical burka and anti-state ideology has tagged her as an Islamic extremist and separatist. Her supporters call her the iron lady.

Asiya Andrabi was married to Ashiq Hussain Faktoo (a founding member of the Hizbul Mujahideen, the biggest militant organization in Kashmir) in 1990. Her husband is in jail since 1992. By then, Asiya was already a household name as the head of Kashmir's biggest network of women jihadis (as she describes her lieutenants of Dukhtaran-e-Millat), In September 2013, Asiya Andrabi’s 3 nephews were arrested in Pakistan for terror links. She hoisted the Pakistan flag and sang the Pakistani national anthem in Kashmir on March 25, 2015. Later on, she was booked for unfurling the Pakistan flag on its national day in Srinagar.

Asiya Andrabi plays a crucial role in Jihadi politics of Kashmir valley. She is best known for supporting Masarat Alam in the 2010 stone-pelting rallies across Kashmir by using her village network of Dukhtaran-e-Millat operatives for rally support.

On September 12, 2015, Hurriyat leader Syeda Asiya Andrabi slaughtered a cow and released a video in a bid to defy the ban on sale of beef in Jammu and Kashmir.

Arrest

She was arrested on August 28, 2010 by Jammu and Kashmir Police for waging war against India and for inciting violence. She was again arrested on September 17, 2015 in connection with a couple of cases registered against her. The cases included waving Pakistani flags and addressing, via phone, a conference in Pakistan recently. Andrabi, who was not keeping well, as per DeM sources, was sent to Women's Police Station Rambagh, Srinagar. The court granted her bail, but she was arrested again, and Kashmiris protested against her rearrest.

Early life

Asiya did her BSc in Biochemistry. She did her post graduation in Arabic from Kashmir University. Later on, she took up the cause of Jihad. She married Dr. Ashiq Hussain Faktoo in 1990.

Personal life

As of 2015, Asiya's husband Dr. Faktoo has been in jail for 23 years. She spent just 2 years with her husband.

Her younger son, 15-year-old Ahmed bin Qasim, is in class IX in Srinagar while her older son, 22-year-old Muhammad bin Qasim, is living with Andrabi's elder sister in Malaysia. He is the captain of his university cricket team. Most of Asiya’s relatives have shifted to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, England and Malaysia. One of her nephews, Zulqarnain is a captain in the Pakistan Army and a second nephew Irtiyaz-un-Nabi is an aeronautical engineer and lecturer in the International Islamic University, Islamabad.

Andrabi founded her religious beliefs on the teachings of the neo-fundamentalist Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, which adheres to the pristine teachings of Islam as to accept everything which is good according to religious text and reject what has not been enjoined by the Islamic Shariah.

Role in Kashmir politics

In pro-Pakistan Islamist activism and separatism, Asiya is senior to Syed Ali Shah Geelani who used to be a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in the 1980s when she founded Dukhtaran-e-Millat. In 1982, Asiya was associated with a Madrassa ‘Talimul Quran’ for women which was later turned into Dukhtaran-e-Millat. She started inviting women to read, understand and practice their faith. She was accused of mobilizing women against India.

On inspiration behind formation of "Dukhtaran-e-Millat" she said, “I was an ambitious girl. I was shocked by this objection on my wish to study outside. But in that disappointed state Mayil Khairabadi’s book 'Khawateen ki Baatein' came to my rescue." The cover story of the book was of Maryam Jameela, a Christian woman who converts to Islam after studying the religion thoroughly. For Asiya, Jameela’s story was “an eye opener” to practice Islam. Then Asiya turned to be fundamentalist Muslim.

Asiya shot into prominence in the late 1980s when she launched the DeM essentially against social vices. However, she jumped into the separatist campaign, which began with the armed insurgency in 1990. In 1993 she was arrested for her anti-national activities, was later released in 1994, and she went underground until 2004. Asiya faced monthly arrests in 2007 to 2009. During the unrest of 2010, she was held for two consecutive years. Along with Masarat Alam (leader of the pro-Pakistan Muslim League), Asiya is believed to be one of the masterminds of the protests of 2010 (in which more than 100 protesters were shot dead by Jammu and Kashmir Police), and they spearheaded the “Quit Jammu and Kashmir” campaign. Both the DeM and the Muslim League are constituents of the Hurriyat Conference faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

She is referred by Muslims in Kashmir as a freedom fighter and was lauded by Pakistan Prime Minister.

Quotes

Here are some quotes of Asiya on different occasions.

• ”My husband was a Mujahid. When we started the struggle in 1988 we called all of the Muslim men to jihad. Until and unless India will leave this Kashmir, until and unless all the Indian forces will leave the Kashmir, jihad will continue (Insh’Allah Rahman) and there is no option that mujahideen will lay down their guns.”
• ”Yes, I believe in that, and not only in Kashmir. I believe jihad is the most sacred job in Islam, and we believe we will be rewarded in the life hereafter. So if Kashmir will be liberated from Indian clutches and there will be jihad somewhere else in Muslim world it’s my dream that my sons will go there and fight,even if my son become a suicide bomber and would kill the enemies of Islam.. ”
• “Yes, we want an Islamic state, why not? Islam should be in power. They should be powerful, the Islam. And that should be governed by the laws of Allah the almighty. Quran is rules and regulations of all parliaments and assemblies”
• “Here in Kashmir the enemies of Islam are the Indian army. To kill Indian army is my dream. So are the Indian politicians — they are the enemies of Islam and they are the enemies of our freedom struggle. Not the common man. If you are from America, I don’t have any grudge with you. But if I see George Bush anywhere, and my son would kill Mr. Bush, it would be a great honor for Asiya Andrabi.”
• "My older son is the youngest prisoner of Kashmir. He was six months old when he went to prison with me. He knows his parents are fighting for a just cause. If they want to do jihad, they should, but I don't want to thrust my strong beliefs on them."
• “Our struggle has not ended. They can kill us but not our aspirations. We would not want to derail but instead die.”
• “We demand freedom from Indian rule. But Kashmiris are slaves of their own bogus customs."
• “Qasim(husband) and I were given options to surrender and become part of mainstream politics. But we cannot give up. We can’t forget our martyers. He lays in prison for his conviction.”
• "I am hoisting Pakistani flag in Kashmir and doing it from the past 35 years. We distribute sweets on August 14 (Pakistan’s Independence Day) and unfurl flags on Pakistan National Day. The whole of Kashmir, in fact, does it. Check how many flags are unfurled here when Pakistan wins a cricket match."

Criticism

• She has been criticised for trying to change the traditional liberal culture of the Kashmir valley into an extremist Islamist culture.
• Asiya has been criticised for inciting the Kashmiri youth to Jihad and "freedom fight" against India, while her own son is pursuing higher studies in Malaysia on an Indian passport.

Dr. Darakshan Andrabi who is the president of Socialistic Democratic Party of Jammu and Kashmir (also a Kashmiri politician who thinks that the future of Kashmiri people lies with India) said in 2010, "I was the first one to talk about the duality that Asiya was adopting. We were happy that she wanted her son to secure an Indian passport and study IT in Malaysia but this should apply for all Kashmiri youth. Asiya should ask all Kashmiris to secure an Indian passport and educate themselves. Instead she exhorts the youth to shun everything and anything that is India."

See also

• Kashmir conflict
• Hurriyat and Problems before Plebiscite
• Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir
• Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election, 2014