Opinion | From Pashmina to Instagram: How Digital Platforms Are Changing Kashmirs Traditional Women-Led Businesses

Kashmir’s Pashmina has long been known for its fine craftsmanship, cultural value and timeless beauty. Traditionally, Kashmiri women involved in Pashmina and other handicrafts depended largely on local markets and middlemen to sell their work. Today, the rise of Instagram and other digital platforms is opening a new window for these women—allowing them to showcase their products, reach customers beyond Kashmir and turn traditional skills into modern business opportunities.In Kashmir, women’s handwork is more than a craft. It carries tradition, patience, creativity, and the stories of generations. Yet for many women artisans, one important question remained difficult: What is the real value of the work created by their hands?

My own experience with Sozni made me understand this difference. I used to do Sozni work myself. Whenever a new design came to me, I would work on it with the skills I had learned. I knew how to create the design, but I did not always know what its proper market price should be or how much value the time and effort behind it actually carried.

A piece of traditional Kashmiri handwork—an example of the skill and labour behind the craft.

Then the era of digitalization began to change what we knew. Through social media and digital platforms, we started seeing the prices of similar handmade products in wider markets. We began to understand what different designs and pieces could actually be worth. Later, when I started doing Rashim work, the same thing happened. At first, I did not have a clear idea of its proper market value. But through social media, I was able to see the prices being offered elsewhere. This knowledge helped me value my work better and earn a more reasonable profit.

Without digitalization, many of us might still have been selling our work without fully understanding its worth. We had the skill, but we did not always have access to the information needed to price that skill.

From a Home-Based Business to a Wider Market

There is another story from my own surroundings that shows this transformation even more clearly. A woman started her business from her home. In the beginning, she did everything herself: she made the products, brought in orders, and then went door to door to deliver them. A great deal of her time was spent simply reaching customers. After the cost and effort of delivery, very little was left as profit.

Digitalization changed her journey. With the help of Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms, she began displaying her skills and products online. People could now see her work without her having to visit every home. Her work attracted attention, and orders started coming from a wider circle of customers.

The change was not only about getting more orders. She saved the time that had previously been spent on door-to-door delivery, reduced unnecessary effort, and was able to make a better profit. As demand grew, her business also grew. What had started as a small home-based activity became an example of how a traditional skill can find new opportunities through digital platforms.

One Woman’s Digital Journey Can Inspire Many More

Her success also had an impact beyond her own business. Other girls began noticing her work and became interested in learning the same skills. I was one of them. I was inspired by her work, went to learn from her, and gradually developed skills that I can now use to make things for my own needs.

This is perhaps one of the most meaningful effects of digitalization: it does not only connect a seller with a customer; it can connect one woman’s talent with another woman’s ambition.

Digitalization Is Giving Traditional Skills a New Voice

The story of Sozni, Rashim, and other forms of Kashmiri handwork shows that technology does not have to replace tradition. It can help tradition survive, grow, and receive the recognition it deserves. Social media can give women visibility, market information, new customers, better pricing knowledge, and the confidence to see themselves not only as skilled workers but also as entrepreneurs.

For women who have spent years creating beautiful work with their hands, digitalization can become a bridge between an old tradition and a new market. It can save time, improve income, expand businesses, and inspire the next generation to learn.

The real change is not simply that handwork has moved online. The real change is that women are beginning to discover the value of what their hands have always known how to create.

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