Geodissonance

Misogynistic Backlash Spurs Kashmiri All-Girl Rock Band to Split

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Geo·dissonance: the metal movement is proliferating to all corners of the globe. In its relentless display of vitriolic truths and the ugliest questions of existence, we can hear the resounding riffs of heavy metal in the most conservative pockets of society. As your Punjabi, riff-worshiping correspondent, I've created Geodissonance to report the controversy: as metal unveils dissonance in cradles of brutality around the world.

As an Indian metalhead myself, I can't help but wonder if an all girl Kashmir-based band like Pragaash would be universally welcomed by the scene if its members had the Y chromosomes and facial hair to meet a strangely unevolved and archaic set of gender norms. The band recently disbanded after receiving a series of death threats, so, too, a formal demand from Kashmir's state appointed cleric, Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad, to cease activity as a group. Despite this religious intervention and societal disparagement, you might be shocked to discover that Pragaash's music was nothing more than fun, innocuous rock – the sonic and thematic opposite of such politically charged, all-girl groups like Pussy Riot. (more…)