‘I gained a new purpose’: Kashmiri women embrace wheelchair basketball

Inshah Bashir was just 15 when she fell from the third floor of her under-construction house in Kashmir’s Budgam district and lost mobility in her legs. Although 14 years have passed, Ms. Bashir still vividly remembers that period in her life after the accident.

“In a region like Kashmir, where even able-bodied people struggle to live their daily lives, there was little hope for a disabled woman,” says Ms. Bashir, who uses a wheelchair. “My disability threatened to put an end to my dreams of independent life.”

But that isn’t where Ms. Bashir’s story ends. Eventually, she convinced her parents to let