have reserved intelligence for themselves thats why when women entered this field they were called women writers but its ok if a woman is dancing and singing these are related to pleasing the senses for ages men have wanted women to please the senses by using the term a woman writer men drag a woman out of their competitionhas the fight for writers like you been more difficult than what it was during the times of lal ded and habba khatoonlal ded was a mystic and she had more freedom than men people followed her after her death they gave her public acceptance habba khatoon was the queen of kashmir in the 14th century the king married her because she was a poetwhat happened to that kashmir which appreciated such womenlal deds poetry is about existentialism and spirituality habba khatoon wrote love poetry i sometimes wonder how she dared to write such sensual poetry at that time here one must also understand that habba khatoon was a queen people gave her public acceptance but after her there was no woman writing for another two centuries could it be possible that there was no intelligent woman around perhaps people never protested in case of habba khatoon because she was a queenpragaash a kashmiri girl band was forced to quit the music scene in 2013 after receiving threats did you ever face that kind of a backlashone has to read a lot to think about issuing a threat to a poet fortunately those who issue such threats dont read my works that way i am safe music on the contrary is accessible to everyone who issues those threatswhats your take on the latest controversy at jammu medical school where students were told not to wear abaya during trainingi havent followed the news but if a woman enters a certain field she has to follow a dress code lawyers and sports personalities have certain dress codes but in personal lives women should be given freedom to wear what they like they have been forced to become carriers of tradition when they should actually be allowed to only carry the baggage of their own choices if a woman wants to wear an abaya she should be allowed to do so if not she should be allowed that as wellgrowing up in kashmirs anantnag must not have been easy has the sound of firing become too common for youthe condition in the valley has improved a lot since 2005 whatever we see now is 5 of what it was when i was a child growing up in a war zone has a lot of aftereffects my father was a soft target because he used to wear a beard i would plead with him to shave but he didnt listen to me he had every reason not to want to do so but every time he was whisked off by the army on some pretext or the other i feared he would never return living amidst