Bandipora: In 2015, life pushed 32-year-old Asiya Begum to the edge of despair. She lost her husband, who was serving in the Indian Army, during a gunfight in North Kashmir — a tragedy that shattered her emotionally.

“People mocked me for being a young widow, and the pressure forced me into a second marriage two years after my husband’s death in 2017. But before I could rebuild my life, another tragedy struck. A devastating fire reduced my entire home to ashes, leaving me and my second husband without shelter once again.”

With no home, no income, and no support from her in-laws, Asiya returned to her father’s house in Nusoo Bandipora — the place she had once left with hopes of building a new life.

“People would say my life was finished,” she recalls. “They believed I couldn’t stand on my own. But my father believed in me when no one else did.”

What began as a desperate struggle for survival slowly transformed into one of Bandipora’s most inspiring stories of resilience. Today, Asiya runs a thriving rooftop vegetable garden and mushroom cultivation unit that earns her Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 a month — making her a remarkable example of rural innovation in North Kashmir.

Returning to her parental home marked the start of an uphill journey. Grief, trauma, and social pressure weighed heavily on her, but her elderly father became her anchor.

“It all started when I returned to my first husband’s battalion to........

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