Srinagar, June 3 -- I used to think I understood gender justice. In university, I studied it deeply. Books, journals, seminars. I could quote Foucault and bell hooks in the same breath.

I learned how patriarchy works, how class and caste shape experience, how power hides in plain sight. But something always nagged at me.

I kept asking myself: What does any of this mean to someone who's never sat in a seminar room?

That question didn't go away. It followed me into the social sector, where I finally had the chance to work with communities. Not on paper, but in person.

I left the lecture hall behind and found myself sitting on mud floors in far-off villages, often in places where women had never spoken in front of men, never finished sch...