Ezabir Ali

Ezabir Ali

Ezabir Ali is a Commonwealth professional and Harvard Alumnae from Kashmir. In the course of her 25-year career, she has served in the public and non-profit sectors in Jammu and Kashmir. For more than two decades, she has done extensive work on the psycho-social healing and economic development of women in Kashmir. Ezabir Ali has documented the impact of conflict on the lives of women in Jammu and Kashmir, including those living along the Line of Control (LoC), Ezabir’s work on the issues affecting half-widows has led to increased support and understanding amongst religious leaders, hard-to-engage groups and society at large, on the rights of women in general and half-widows in particular. Her initial contact with the Ulema (religious leaders) on this issue, led to a ‘fatwa’ being passed to address the ambiguity surrounding the number of years a half-widow must wait before considering remarrying if she wishes. More recently, she has made considerable progress in advocating for the property rights of half-widows. Ezabir Ali has also been working on improving the relationship between polarised communities in Kashmir, using dialogue, active listening and effective mediation as a skill. She has set up SAMANBAL, which is a “safe inclusive story-telling spaces” for women across all divides to dialogue and build solidarity to improve relationships amongst women of three regions, who were deeply divided over a lengthy period of time. Ezabir Ali is the Founder/Secretary of EHSAAS, a Non-Governmental Policy group working on advocacy on rights of women in Jammu and Kashmir State. She is also Board Member, Jammu and Kashmir Voluntary Health & Development Association and Consultant/Partner Conciliation Resources, Gender Project, South Asia. Ezabir Ali completed her basic education in Nyeri, East Africa. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and education from Kashmir, a Master's in English from Kashmir University and a Master's in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia, Norwich.