Srinagar, July 31 -- Every time tragedy strikes Kashmir, one thing is almost guaranteed: before the facts settle, before institutions respond, before society pauses to reflect, women are placed in the dock.

The recent floods that ravaged parts of the Valley should have sparked serious conversations about climate resilience, urban planning, environmental degradation, illegal construction, shrinking wetlands, and administrative preparedness. Instead, social media found a far easier explanation. Women were blamed.

According to countless self-appointed guardians of morality, the floods were not the consequence of changing weather patterns or decades of environmental neglect. They were supposedly God's punishment for girls wearing jeans, pur...