Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Using a qualitative approach, this study aimed to examine the changing nature of death, dying and mourning among Muslims of Kashmir due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Telephonic Interviews were conducted with 17 participants, whose loved ones died after the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Kashmir. The findings of the study revealed that the deceased mostly died in isolation with no one around. Mourning the loss was also highly challenging with participants receiving less in-person support thus leading to mourning in isolation. The inability to perform last rites added yet another layer of grief which resulted in prolonged grief among the bereaved and impacted their overall wellbeing.

Keywords

COVID-19 death Kashmiri Muslims mourning qualitative approach

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adams

K. M.

(2020, April 13). Part 1: Ritual and grief in the time of COVID-19. The conversation project. https://theconversationproject.org/tcp-blog/ritual-and-grief-in-the-time-of-covid-19

Ademiluka

S. O.

(2009). The sociological functions of funeral mourning: Illustrations from the old testament and Africa. Old Testaments Essays, 22(1), 9–20

Afshana

(2020, May 10). Mourning: Grief is lingering in the air like the viral aerosols. Greater Kashmir. https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/mourning/?fbclid=IwAR3ss2CpAjJ7zfH2XXwMdfu85SL1OLLa3VLcxkCCJXlBOhnK3PmsIBczbrM

Ahaddour

Branden

S. V.

Broeckaert

(2017). Purification of body and soul for the next journey. Practices surrounding death and dying among Muslim women. OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying, 76, 169–200. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222817729617

Ariès

(1974). Western attitudes toward death: From the middle ages to the present. Marion Boyars Publishers.

Bahar

Beser

Ersin

Kıssal

Aydogdu

N. G.

(2012). Traditional and religious death practices in Western Turkey. Asian Nursing Research, 6, 107–114.

Bhat

B. A.

Ashraf

S. S.

Ali

Nusrat, Nazim

Sultan

M. M.

(2020). Awareness, attitude and practice of rural people in Kashmir towards COVID-19: A sample survey. International Journal of Scientific Development and Research, 5(4), 66–73.

Biçer

(2009). The physical and spiritual anatomy of death in Muslim Turkish Culture. Kelam Arastirmalari, 7(2), 19–38.

Bloch

Parry

(Eds.). (1982). Death and the regeneration of life. Cambridge University Press.

10.

Braun

Clarke

(2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.

11.

Carr

Boerner

Moorman

(2020). Bereavement in the times of coronavirus: Unprecedented challenges demand novel interventions. Journal of Aging & Social Policy, 32(4-5), 425-431. https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2020.1764320

12.

Cennimo

D. J.

Bergman

S. J.

Olsen

K. M.

(2020, July 15). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Medscape. https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2500114-overview#a1

13.

COVID-19 Situation Update Worldwide, as of 28 July 2020. (2020, July 28). European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov–cases

14.

Dharma, N. (2020, July 01). Injured law student dies as Kashmir hospitals flip on Covid protocol. The Kashmir Monitor. https://www.google.com/amp/s/injured-law-student-dies-as-kashmir-hospitals-flip-on-covid-protocol/amp/

15.

Durkheim

(1954). The elementary forms of the religious life. Allen & Unwin.

16.

El-Aswad

(1987). Death rituals in rural Egyptian society: A symbolic study. The Anthropology of the Middle East, 16(2), 205–241.

17.

Gaddar

(2013). Change in death rituals: The case of the ritualistic wailing in the Amazigh Culture. World Journal of Islamic History and Civilization, 3(2), 57–61.

18.

Gardner

(1998). Death, burial and bereavement amongst Bengali Muslims in Tower Hamlets, East London. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 24(3), 507–521.

19.

Gesi

Carmassi

Cerveri

Carpita

Cremone

Dell’Osso

(2020). Complicated grief: What to expect after the coronavirus pandemic. Frontiers in Psychiatry.https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00489

20.

Getty

Cobb

Gabeler

Nelson

Weng

Hancock

J. T.

(2010, April 28). Digital bereavement: Articulating the unheard utterances. https://uncommonground4500.blogspot.com/

21.

Government of Canada. (2020). Interim guidance: Death care services and handling of dead bodies during coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/disease/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/guidance-documents/death-care-services-handling-dead-bodies.html

22.

Government of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (2020). COVID-19: Guidelines on dead body management. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/1584423700568_COVID19GuidlinesonDeadbodymanagement.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjUqO6ZupqAhXLSH0KHcliCZEQFjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1NFmG1Wo_s5c6LPccHUM6t&cshid=1595510789171

23.

Hamid, W., Jahangir, M. S., Khan, T. A., & Maqbool, T. (2019). Role of technology in restructuring the traditional practices around death and mourning in Kashmir. Death Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2019.1701146

24.

Heath

(2011). The classic definition of a pandemic is not elusive. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 89(7), 540–541.

25.

Hertz

(1960). A contribution to the study of the collective representation of death. In Robben

A. C.

(Ed.), Death, mourning and burial: A cross cultural reader (pp. 197–212). Blackwell.

26.

Ingravallo

(2020). Death in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet Public Health, 5(5), e258. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30079-7

27.

Jahangir, M. S., & Hamid, W. (2020). Mapping mourning among Muslims of Kashmir: Analysis of religious principles and current practices. OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222820911544

28.

Kashmir News Trust. (2020, July 28). Timeline [Facebook page]. https://www.facebook.com/255344407988366/posts/1399492700240192/?sfnsn=wiwspwa&extid=U6n21Puq2zliXdm1

29.

KNT NEWSDESK. (2020, July 03). Social stigma pushing up Covid deaths in Kashmir: DAK. Kashmir News Trust. https://kashmirnewstrust.in/2020/07/social-stigma-pushing-up-covid-deaths-in-kashmir-dak-2297/

30.

Last

J. M.

(Ed.). (2001). A dictionary of epidemiology (4th ed.). Oxford University.

31.

Luttik

M. L. A.

Mahrer-Imhof

Garcia-Vivar

Brodsgaard

Dieperink

K. B.

Imhof

Ostergaard

Svavarsdottir

E. K.

Konradsen

(2020). The COVID-19 pandemic: A family affair. Journal of Family Nursing, 26(2), 87–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/1074840720920883

32.

Mandelbaum

D. G.

(1959). Social uses of funeral rites. In Herman

(Ed.), The meaning of Death (pp. 189–217). McGraw Hill.

33.

Massachusetts General Hospital. (2020, May 06). Virtual care connects patients and families during COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.massgeneral.org/news/coronavirus/virtual-care-connects-patients-and-families

34.

Mohanty

S. B.

(2003). Death rituals and practices of the Hill Saora of Orissa [Doctoral dissertation, Utkal University].

35.

Negro

Mucci

Beccaria

Borghi

Capocasa.

Cardinali

Pasculli

Ranzani

Villa

Zangrillo

(2020). Introducing the Video call to facilitate the communication between health care providers and families of patients in the intensive care unit during COVID-19 pandemia. Intensive & Critical Care Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iccn.2020.102893

36.

Northern Devon Healthcare. (2020, April 27). Families able to see loved ones in hospital during coronavirus pandemic using video calling technology. https://www.northdevonhealth.nhs.uk/2020/04/families-able-to-see-loved-ones-in hospital-during-coronavirus-pandemic-using-video-calling-technology/

37.

O’Mohony

(2020). Mourning our dead in the Covid-19 pandemic. British Medical Journal.https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1649

38.

Peer

(2020, July 28). Doctor among 12 die in JK: 489 more cases in 24 hrs, tally 18,879. Rising Kashmir. https://epaper.risingkashmir.com/

39.

Pietkiewicz

(2012). Burial rituals and cultural changes in the polish community—A qualitative study. Polish Psychological Bulletin, 43(4), 288–309.

40.

Public Health England. (2020, July 09). COVID-19: Guidance for managing a funeral during the coronavirus pandemic. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-managing-a-funeral-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/covid-19-guidance-for-managing-a-funeral-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic

41.

Qiu

Rutherford

Mao

Chu

(2016–2017). The pandemic and its impacts. Health, Culture and Society, 9–10, 1--11. https://doi.org/10.5195/hcs.2017.221

42.

Rajagopal

Thacker

(2020, April 23). Ease lockdown, let other critical patients get treatment: Hospitals. The Economic Times. https://m.economictimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/healthcare/ease-lockdown-let-other-critical-patients-get-treatment-hospitals/articleshow/75310740.cms

43.

Rashid

H. I.

(2020, May 05). COVID-19: Wrongful deaths at a hospital and misrule in Anantnag of Kashmir. The Economic Times. https://www.googole.com/amp/s/m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/covid-19-wrongful-deaths-at-a-hospital-and-misrule-in-anantnag-of-kashmir/amp_articleshow/75546053.cms

44.

Reimers

(1999). Death and Identity: Graves and funeral as cultural communication. Mortality: Promoting the Interdisciplinary Study of Death and Dying, 4(2), 147–166.

45.

Remuzzi

(2020). COVID-19 and Italy: What next? The Lancet, 395(10231), 1225–1228. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30627-9

46.

Restrictions in Kashmir Valley Tightened Due to Coronavirus. (2020, April 05). The Economic Times. https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/restrictions-in-kashmir-valley-tightened-due-to-covid-19/amp_articleshow/75005542.cms

47.

Sakal Times. (2020, May 23). Coronavirus is changing the death rituals too. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sakaltimes.com/world/coronavirus-changing-death-rituals-too-50466%3famp

48.

Sen

(2020, May 03). Grieve but in Isolation: How covid-19 has upturned the way we mourn, handle death. Outlook. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.otlookindia.com/website/amp/opinion-grieve-but-in-isolation-how-covid-19-has-upturned-how-we-moun-handle-death/351989

49.

Shapiro

(2020, May 11). Johns Hopkins helps patients and families stay connected when COVID-19 prohibits visits. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus/articles/stay-connected.html

50.

Suhail

Jamil

Oyebode

Ajmal

M. A.

(2011). Continuing bonds in bereaved Pakistani Muslims: Effects of culture and religion. Death Studies, 35(1), 22–41.

51.

The Hindu. (2020, July 06). Ordeal of people with ‘false’ COVID-19 positive cases in Kashmir. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/ordeal-of-people-with-false-covid-19-positive-cases-in-kashmir/article32004052.ece/amp/

52.

United Nations. (2020). Everyone included: Protecting vulnerable groups in times of global pandemic. https://www.un.org/development/desa/undesavoice/highlights/2020/04#49113

53.

United Nations. (2020). The social impact of Covid-19. https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2020/04/social-impact-of-covid-19

54.

Van Gennep

(1960). The rites of passage. University of Chicago Press.

55.

Wallace

C. L.

Wladkowski

S. P.

Gibson

White

(2020). Grief during the COVID-19 pandemic: Considerations for palliative care providers. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 60(1), e70-e76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.04.012

56.

Weir

(2020, April 06). Grief and COVID-19: Saying goodbye in the age of physical distancing. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/grief-distance

57.

Yardley

Rolph

(2020). Death and dying during the pandemic. British Medical Journal. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1427

58.

Yasien-Esmael

Rubin

S. S.

(2005). The meaning structures of Muslim bereavements in Israel: Religious traditions, mourning practices, and human experiences. Death Studies, 29(6), 495–518.

59.

Zhai

(2020). Loss and grief amidst Covid-19: A path to adaptation and resilience. Brain, Behaviour and Immunity, 87, 80-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2020

Dying,Death and Mourning amid COVID-19 Pandemic in Kashmir: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References