This Kashmiri Teacher Is Proof That Hope Wins

By Gowher Bhat

I first heard about Zeenat Basir in Chevakalan, a village in Pulwama where everyone seems to know her name. Even as a child, she stood apart.

“She was always in her own world,” her friend Amina told me.“While we ran and played, Zeenat would sit under the old walnut tree, completely lost in her books.”

That love for learning never left her.

She went on to earn a postgraduate degree in English, a B.Ed, and a diploma in computers, a rare achievement in a region where just 12% of rural women reach such milestones.

Her teachers whispered about her bright future, and neighbours assumed she would soon secure a government job, lifting her family's fortunes along the way.

But life had other plans.

By 34, after years of preparing for teaching posts and competitive exams, Zeenat faced rejection after rejection.

“Every time I failed, it felt like a piece of me disappeared,” she said, sitting in her modest home as the evening breeze carried the scent of pine from the hills.

Nights were the hardest. She lay awake, tracing the ceiling beams, haunted by questions: What if my education means nothing? What will people think?

Mornings brought a fog of sadness. She withdrew from neighbours and relatives, dreading their casual questions:“When will you get that government job?”

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