A Kashmiri woman created Yakjut Group, a platform that brings Kashmiri women from around the world together and creates opportunities for financial independence, including for women who work from home. The idea for the platform emerged from her experience of seeing how social media groups could help people connect, share opportunities and support one another across geographical boundaries. She felt there was a need for a similar space, specifically for Kashmiri women, where they could connect, promote their work and build economic independence.
Yakjut began as a business-oriented platform, but over time, it grew into a broader community space. Women use the platform to discuss social issues, have important conversations, seek advice and support one another in dealing with everyday challenges. The platform has also provided women with an opportunity to showcase other talents and interests, including poetry, writing and fitness.
It has not only enabled thousands of women to do business online; it has also become a space for counselling, mentoring and skill development. Women are supported in developing the skills they need to grow their businesses, while individual business ideas are also discussed and mentored.
As an administrator, I bring more than eight years of experience in learning and development, and I use that experience to share knowledge with women through sessions and discussions designed to help them build their confidence and develop their skills.
The support also extends beyond business. Yakjut has been involved in charitable efforts, including helping people who are ill and supporting brides in need. In some cases, women have also used the platform to help their husbands’ family businesses grow, showing that the impact of the community can extend beyond individual businesses to families and households as well.
In this way, Yakjut is not simply an online business platform. It has grown into a community where women can learn, mentor one another, develop skills, explore business ideas, support others and contribute to their communities.
But creating a space where women could speak freely did not mean that the space was always left alone.
As the founder explains, women often struggle to find a place where they can simply be themselves, whether it is in their own homes, their in-laws’ homes or even in a space created specifically for women. She says that whenever women come together, there can be an assumption from some men that something must be wrong, or that women are simply spreading negativity.
I have seen men go to considerable lengths to enter the Yakjut group. Some created new Gmail accounts and fake Facebook profiles and even went through the group’s questions to gain access. Others reportedly used accounts belonging to their mothers, wives or other female relatives to enter the women-only space.
What shocked me was not simply that some men wanted to know what women were discussing, but the amount of effort they were willing to make to enter a space that had been created specifically for women.
I kept wondering: why is there so much curiosity about what women talk about when they are among themselves? Women participate in gatherings and spaces where men are present, but I have rarely seen women go to such lengths to secretly enter men-only spaces to find out what they are discussing.
Some men who accessed or discussed the group even described Yakjut in extremely negative terms, calling it a “cancer” in society. But I have to ask: if a group gives women a space to talk about their lives, seek advice, share their experiences and support one another, what exactly makes that a threat?
I have never seen Yakjut as “poison” or “cancer.” I see it as a space that was created because women in Kashmir have needed such a space for a long time, a place where they can speak openly, ask questions, share experiences and support one another without constantly being judged.
When Women Need Advice from Women
An important part of Yakjut is the exchange of lived experiences among women. Being divorced, separated, or a single mother does not mean that a woman has nothing valuable to contribute when it comes to conversations about marriage, relationships or family.
In fact, a woman who has experienced divorce, separation or single motherhood may sometimes be able to offer meaningful advice because she has personally gone through difficult situations and understands what it means to deal with them.
Why should a woman who has gone through separation or divorce be considered incapable of giving advice? She has her own experience of life, and that experience can be valuable to another woman who may be facing a similar situation.
For a young woman who is about to get married, speaking to women who have already experienced marriage can help her understand what she might encounter and how she could deal with difficult situations. Another woman may be able to tell her about things she herself did not know before getting married.
The conversations on Yakjut are not always about major problems either. Many of them are about the small, everyday situations that women experience but may not feel comfortable discussing elsewhere. A mother may ask about a problem her two-week-old baby is experiencing, and another woman may respond by sharing what worked for her. Someone facing difficulties in her marriage may share her experience and receive advice from women who have gone through something similar.
There are also women in the group who may be frustrated or struggling with their own circumstances. Sometimes, another woman’s experience or advice can help them look at their situation differently. There have been instances where women have received support and advice that helped them work through problems in their marriages.
Some men have questioned this kind of exchange, arguing that women should simply take advice from their mothers or older women in the family. But the question is: does every generation experience life in the same way?
But the world does not operate in the same way it did in the 1970s, 1980s or 1990s. It is 2026. The world has changed, and the problems women face have changed too.
Today’s young women are dealing with relationships, careers, parenting, financial independence, social media and many other issues in ways that may be very different from the experiences of previous generations.
That does not mean a mother’s experience is not valuable. It means that sometimes another woman of the same generation may have experienced something much closer to what a young woman is going through today.
Experience does not belong to one generation.
A woman who has already gone through something can tell another woman what happened, how she dealt with it and what she wishes she had known earlier. The younger woman can then make her own decisions with more information and understanding.
Yakjut is not about replacing mothers, families or traditional support systems. It is about creating another layer of support, a space where women can speak openly with other women who may have lived through similar experiences.
When it is a woman’s turn
For both the founder and me, the issue goes beyond Yakjut. We believe there has long been a pattern of sidelining women whenever they enter spaces of public attention, including social media and online platforms.
I have personally observed how, whenever a woman comes into the public spotlight, the conversation can quickly shift from what she has achieved or what she has to say to how she behaves, what she wears, what she believes, or whether her choices are acceptable to society.
“We have always been biased,” the founder says. “Whenever it is a woman’s turn, we sideline her.”
Let me give you example, A Kashmiri woman appeared on a TV programme last year, and people started criticising her, saying that this was not good for Kashmiri women. But this year, when a man appeared on the same kind of platform, people supported him for doing it.
Why is it that whatever a man does is often considered acceptable, while if a woman does the same thing, it is immediately considered wrong?
If we are talking about religion, then religious principles are meant for both men and women. But somehow, men have reduced religion to something that women are expected to follow. Whether it is respect, honour, maintaining the family, doing household work, modesty or haya, so many expectations are placed on women.
Men, meanwhile, often do whatever they feel is right for themselves. The same religious principles that are expected from women also apply to men, but the rules are often enforced much more strictly on women. Men want women to follow those rules, while they do not always hold themselves to the same standard.
“Whenever it is a woman’s turn, suddenly everyone remembers religion and society.”
This is the double standard that needs to be questioned. A behaviour that may be tolerated or overlooked when a man does it can become a matter of intense scrutiny when a woman does the same.
Even when I look at Yakjut, I see the same pattern. Some men have decided that this women-only group is not good for society. But what about the things men themselves are doing? Who is asking whether those things are good for society?
Women have never gone around asking the world whether what men are doing is good for society. What about rape? What about war? What about violence and fighting? Are these things good for society?
Yet when women create a space for themselves, where they can talk openly, exchange ideas and support one another, that space itself can become something that people feel entitled to question.
For Yakjut, creating such a space was not simply about keeping men out. It was about giving women a place where they could participate on their own terms, whether they wanted to discuss work, business, creativity, social issues, personal experiences or ordinary matters of everyday life.
The idea of women supporting women therefore sits at the centre of the platform. It creates room for women’s voices, experiences and knowledge to be shared without constantly needing approval from the outside.
The name “Yakjut,” meaning “Unity,” reflects this idea. The platform brings together Kashmiri women across geographical, religious and social boundaries, including Kashmiri Pandit, Muslim, Sikh and other Kashmiri women.
What began as a platform for business and financial independence became something broader: a community where women could exchange skills, discuss difficult experiences, seek support, share their creativity and, most importantly, have a space of their own.
Perhaps that is what Yakjut ultimately represents: not a space against men, but a space for women. A place where women can speak without being told what they should think, how they should behave or what society should allow them to be. In a society where women’s choices are so often questioned, creating a space where women can listen to one another, support one another and simply be themselves is, in itself, a form of unity. Yakjut may have started with the idea of bringing women together, but its larger message is about something much simpler, women should also have the freedom to create spaces that belong to them.
