The Kashmir Women's Collective says change will be more visible on ground if more people show their support. It is shaped along the ideological lines of the Combahee River Collective, led by black feminists in the US in the s. Since the storm over the MeToo movement broke over social media timelines, Rashid and her colleagues have been fighting a smear campaign on Facebook FB after the collective published a list of names on FB of men accused of predatory behaviour.
They expected retaliation, but the slut-shaming that followed surprised them. Thankfully, the women the KWC interviewed and gathered evidence from were not named. Khalid is not one of the people named in the list. Rashid alleges that Geelani is circulating an inappropriate photo of a woman to prove that he was in a consensual relationship with her.
Rashid also claims that Geelani is now indirectly blackmailing the KWC. Which is basically blackmail," she claims.
Several calls, a text and a WhatsApp message by this reporter to Geelani went unanswered. But the most worrying aspect, Khanum says, is the accusation of being RAW agents.
In a place like Kashmir, such labels, even if unfounded, can raise suspicion. The smear attack got so out of hand that Rashid and her team filed an FIR on 14 October under Sections wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot and statements conducting to public mischief under the Ranbir Penal Code the main criminal code applicable in the state , a copy of which Lounge has access to.
