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Kashmir’s Half Widows

Estimates range between 2000 and 6000 women do not know the whereabouts of their husbands. They are Kashmir’s Half Widows, women whose spouses have disappeared during the conflict. Some have been killed by security forces or militants, some have crossed the border to take up arms, and some have been jailed. Regardless the cause of their disappearance, they’ve left behind children, and their wives. Without proof of their husbands death,  the women are unable to re-marry, receive government funding, and are often cast out of society as a great stigma is attached the now single women. Most of their in-laws disown the women and their children.

For the first time these women are leaving their homes, and are seeking work as seamstresses, taking odd jobs, and begging on the street in order to provide for their children and themselves. They continue to search for their husbands and to hang on to the thought of them coming home. Every women I’ve met and photographed says they haven’t lost hope of their husbands return.

I hope to continue to document these women by photographing them through their daily life. The struggles, the stigmas, and the hope.  My goal is that this story raises awareness to the quiet injustices in this conflict.

Photographs: Brent Foster
Website: www.brentfoster.com