More about Me

I am Jalees Hyder, a Kashmiri poet, resistance educator, and frontline organizer. I was born and raised in downtown Srinagar under the boot of Indian military occupation. My earliest memories are shaped by violence: my mother survived a grenade attack when I was only six months old. Years later, I was tortured by the Indian army, and the injuries left me disabled, eventually leading to kidney failure. I spent three years on dialysis.

But resistance gave me life again; literally. It was a comrade who saw the worth in my voice, who gave me the gift of a new kidney, not just as a personal gesture, but as a political act. This is why I say my life is not separate from resistance. It is made of it.

I didn’t choose activism; life pushed me into it. There are very few of us who were born and raised in Kashmir and still speak up, despite the cost. Most voices speaking for Kashmir are in the diaspora. I carry a rare weight: the witness of lived truth. I have burned bridges, paid the price, and still kept speaking because someone must.

I began as a poet. My poetry helped people connect to this pain and this memory. But today, my work has outgrown poetry. I teach. I organize. I testify. I resist through every possible form.

While my roots are firmly in the Kashmiri liberation movement, my heart aligns with all collective resistance struggles from Palestine to Turtle Island. I believe in abolition, in global solidarity, and in resisting all forms of domination. I am committed to building bridges between our struggles and lifting up a shared vision of liberation.

I draw strength from the martyrs: Kashmiri, Palestinian, Lebanese, Native and from the memory of those who never surrendered. Their blood, their defiance, guides me. I remember the barbed wires, the mountains, the sieges. I resist to hope to see those free who come after me.

If I’m remembered at all, let it be as someone who carried forward the legacy of those who refused to bow. My ancestors survived eleven massacres. I am their voice, their continuity, and their rebellion.