Positive Solace with Attika Choudhary
Welcome to Positive Solace with Attika Choudhary, the award-winning journalist and host of this twice-nominated podcast.
Positive Solace is a sanctuary for honest conversations, quiet transformation, and intentional healing. Born in a moment of global stillness in 2020, this space was created to offer light in uncertainty, a place for reflection, connection, and renewal.
Here, vulnerability is not weakness but a doorway. Each unscripted episode welcomes voices from across cultures and experiences, sharing stories rich with wisdom, resilience, and heart. Blending warmth with depth, this is where comfort meets clarity and insight never overwhelms.
Rooted in purpose, Positive Solace challenges narratives and stereotypes while uplifting a community working toward a more inclusive, conscious world.
This is more than a podcast. It’s a quiet invitation to pause, to breathe, and to remember who you are and who you're becoming.
Come as you are. Leave lighter, wiser, and more deeply connected to yourself and to the world.
Positive Solace with Attika Choudhary
Kashmir’s Fight for Justice with Mir Urfi
In the penultimate Positive Solace: Women of Vision, Attika speaks to Mir Urfi, a Kashmiri lawyer and human rights activist, who faces a constant struggle for justice and freedom of movement, not just for her clients.
She is often stopped and made to identify herself by the Indian security forces in her own state: Jammu and Kashmir.
When Urfi began her work as a lawyer she was a woman in a man's world, and even today there are very few female lawyers, especially those willing to take on cases of citizens wrongfully detained.
Since 1949, Article 370 of India's Constitution gives Jammu and Kashmir special status, authorising the region to have its own constitution and state flag. However, this article was revoked by India in 2019, resulting in the voice of the people being silenced. With communication services suspended, a curfew imposed, creating an effective lockdown, and people encouraged to stay off the streets, the state is effectively under martial law.
Oppressive legislation such as the Public Safety Act (PSA), is being used to make indefinite arrests and detentions thereby revoking a person's rights. In fact, the PSA violates many human rights according to international law.
In her day-to-day life, Urfi fights for those unlawfully detained: sometimes, she explains, these people have been held in custody for months or even years. The PSA gives the security forces the right to revoke a person's right to habeas corpus which should force the authorities to bring the detainee to trial. And while India feigns ignorance of its actions, its security forces pursue further injustice.
Urfi says she dreams of a Kashmir where people can live without fear, go out without hinderance, and not feel constantly the threat of physical violence or mental pressure from the security forces. Mental problems have increased due to high levels of anxiety. Upwards of a third of the adult population have been diagnosed with some form of mental condition and Urfi believes this is all related to the stress of living with the present tensions. Even the medical practitioners who treat the people are themselves suffering from heightened anxiety states.
Urfi's mentor was the renowned lawyer and human rights activist Mir Shafqat Hussain who fought all his life for people abandoned by the judicial system. And he played a pivotal role in helping Amnesty International highlight the abuse of humans rights in Kashmir. Urfi has taken over his firm and is now walking in his footsteps.
Urfi tells Attika that the Kashmiri people must be freed from the constant military pressure. “The people need to be given the right to live!” she says.
With thanks to the Positive Solace Team. Don’t forget to subscribe to never miss an episode.
Be sure to check out our social media pages:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PositiveSolace/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PositiveSolace
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/positivesolace/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@positivesolace
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClhK6amRXNbMKZsEacDgyjw
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.