Shoaib Mir
Bio:
Shoaib Mir is an independent journalist from Indian-administered Kashmir currently based in New Delhi, India. He writes about conflict, gender, and the refugee crisis. On Twitter: @Imshoaibmir.
Last September, as India braced itself for another deadly Covid-19 wave amid the upcoming festival season, “La Beauté & Style salon” — the country’s first-ever salon run and managed by trans men — quietly opened its doors in the heart of a bustling market in Ghaziabad, in the capital of New Delhi.
For nearly four decades, Baba Wayil, a small Muslim village situated on the foothills of the snowclad Zabarwan Range in Indian-administered Kashmir, has cultivated fame for its blanket ban on dowries and lavish weddings.
The conflict-torn Himalayan valley has seen a surge in mental health cases since the abrogation of the autonomous status of the region, with women among the most distressed.
