Her Name Was Zoon

Before memes and microphones, there was Zoon Dub—a 20-minute monologue that challenged power, people, and the pulse of times.

- Zaheer Majeed

There was a time in Kashmir when Thursdays belonged to Zoon Dub.

At 9:15 PM sharp, everything else stopped: dinner conversations, shop-keeping, even quarrels.

Radios crackled to life across the valley, tuned religiously to what was then Radio Kashmir, Srinagar.

What followed was not just a 20-minute serial drama. It was a collective ritual.

And the plot was simple.

Zoon, a village woman with wit and wisdom, offered commentary on everything from politics to patriarchy, often without naming either.

Her world was local, but her insight was universal. What elevated the show, however, was its writing. It was sharp, subversive, and steeped in Kashmiri humour.

And the magnetic voice of Shameem Banu, who played Zoon with such authenticity that listeners felt she lived next door.

The legend has it that people would even skip weddings to hear Zoon. She wasn't merely a character, she was a phenomenon.