Syed Sehrish Asgar: Kashmiri woman IAS officer raises awareness on periods among young girls

SRINAGAR: A 33-year-old Kashmiri woman IAS officer has gone beyond her routine administrative duties to address an otherwise ‘forbidden subject’ of stress and isolation among young girls in Kashmir during their menstrual periods.
Syed Sehrish Asgar, a 2013-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, is the District Magistrate (DM) of Budgam.
Asgar is the first woman DM of the district since it was formed in 1979. She organised the first-ever all-woman conclave at the district headquarters on Monday to address the problems faced by girl students during their menstrual periods.
Even discussing this routine biological phenomenon in public in conservative Kashmiri society has remained a taboo.
Celebrating womanhood, renowned speakers, all women from various fields, spoke on the rights, legal protection, harassment and related issues of women.
The speakers included Munsiff Judge District Court Budgam, Tabasum Qadir Parray, Police Women Cell In-Charge, Budgam, Inspector Gulshana, Social Welfare officer Shaheen Rasool, Chief Education Officer, Fatima Tak, and entrepreneur Rubeena Tabasum.