Jammu’s story is vanishing — within 30 years, an unbroken heritage of 5,000 years could be gone. This research exposes why, and builds the roadmap to stop it.

Refat Yasmeen is an independent researcher whose work explores postcolonial trauma, identity erasure, language loss, and mental health within the British Jammu diaspora. Born in the UK to a Pahari-speaking family from Mirpur (Jammu, Occupied by Pakistan), she bridges academic inquiry with community advocacy, ensuring lived experience and cultural voice remain central.

Her empirical research includes:

Rochdale Identity Survey (2024–2025) – A 360-person study examining how members of the British Jammu diaspora identify themselves (Pakistani, Kashmiri, or Jammuvī), highlighting the emotional and political implications of imposed naming.

Linguistic Erasure and Misrecognition – An ongoing investigation into generational Pahari language loss, cultural silencing, and systemic misclassification in education and policy.

Trauma and Mental Health in the Jammu Diaspora (2023–2025) – In collaboration with Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST), this project examines transgenerational trauma, PTSD, and healthcare access for survivors of partition violence, war, and displacement.

Trauma-Informed Storytelling Workshops – Narrative medicine sessions that combine children’s literature, oral history, and community memory work to process collective trauma.

Her academic writing engages with cultural trauma, identity erasure, postcolonial theory, and diaspora mental health. Recent and forthcoming works include:

Naming, Erasure, and Identity in a Misrecognised Jammu Diaspora – submitted to Transcultural Psychiatry.

The Forgotten Wound: Mental Health and Epigenetic Trauma in the Mirpur Massacre – submitted to Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry.

The Ethics of Deglobalisation: Rust Belt America to Forgotten Jammu – submitted to Journal of Refugee Studies.

The Psychological Foundations of Political Identity: Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and Complex PTSD – in review.

Faith and Families: Clan Memory, Dogra Conversion, and the Jammuvīyat of Bhimber – in preparation.

Mental Health, War, and Gender: The Afterlife of Displacement in British Jammu Diaspora Women – in preparation.

Invisible Jammu: Erasure, Extraction and Climate Justice in a Forgotten Territory  - In review

Through her PhD by Publication, she aims to bridge historical reclamation, cultural representation, and trauma-informed advocacy.

Her research shows that without immediate cultural, educational, and policy intervention, the Jammu identity could vanish within a single generation — not by chance, but through systemic neglect and political design. Every year lost accelerates the erasure of language, history, and heritage. The time to invest, intervene, and reverse this trajectory is now.