PEERZADA UMMER
SRINAGAR, AUG 25
Masrat Zahra, a Kashmiri photojournalist was on August 22 awarded prestigious Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism 2020. This young girl in her twenties should have been celebrating the feat with her friends and colleagues and sharing the pictures of felicitation on her social media accounts which has thousands of followers.
But she is sitting quietly at her home, avoiding public gaze, meeting no one, and seldom attends her phone. She is even mulling to bidding adieu to journalism.
Last week, posters purportedly of a Pakistani-based militant outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen began making rounds on social media, declaring Zahra an Indian agent working from Kashmir for secret agencies. The next day, police landed in her home in Srinagar’s Hawal area, seeking from her the requisite details and even offering her police protection. She refused the security cover, telling the police that she was a photojournalist and it was not possible for the police constables to accompany her as she picks the camera and roams around the violence infested streets of Kashmir. “But refusing the security cover is a two-edged sword. I have to give that in writing to the police. Tomorrow I could be killed by anyone and the newspaper headlines would be like unknown gunmen shot dead a photojournalist. It is all scary to the core,” Zahra tells India Tomorrow.
For the past 10 days, she hasn’t moved out of her home and spends most of her time reading books and watching movies. “I don’t know where from these posters have emerged. The Hizb-ul-Mujahideen in its official statement recently has distanced itself from such posters but Kashmir is a terribly strange place. You can be killed for any reason or for no reason at all,” she said.
On August 22, news came that Zahra has been awarded Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism 2020 for “telling [stories] of the women of Kashmir.”
New: @Masratzahra, who reports on conflict in Jammu and Kashmir with a focus on women’s issues, has won the 2020 Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism.
We are honored to host this virtual ceremony and Zahra on 9/24. https://t.co/yahulsEo0P #NewmarkJSchool pic.twitter.com/4E8W6J07t0
— Newmark J-School (@newmarkjschool) August 24, 2020
“Masrat Zahra exhibits the very qualities that my late husband, Peter Mackler, fostered in the new generation of reporters whose path he crossed. Masrat’s complete dedication to reporting the story, no matter the risks, along with her mental fearlessness and creative approach to use any medium at her disposal to bear witness to the world made our choice easy,” Catherine Antoine, president of the Global Media Forum Training Group and founder of the Peter Mackler Award, said while announcing the award.
Earlier this year, Zahra was awarded Anja Niedringhaus Courage In Photojournalism Award 2020, which celebrates the courageous work of women photojournalists, by International Women’s Media Foundation. “I was very happy when I won that award. I excitedly shared the news on social media. My family was also happy about this because they thought the award would save me from getting framed in a case,” Zahra said.
In April this year, this female photojournalist was booked by the Jammu and Kashmir Police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly glorifying “anti-national activities” on social media. In a statement issued by the Cyber Police Station (Kashmir Zone), the police accused Masrat Zahra of uploading “anti-national” posts with the criminal intention to induce the youth and promote offenses against public tranquillity. She was even called for questioning into the matter.
“Now the militant outfits have started calling me the informer, a ‘Mukbir’. I wonder what secret information I possess that I could share with the same police that has few months ago booked me under the draconian act? But in Kashmir labels come for free: Pakistani labels, Indian labels, IB labels, RAW labels. It is a land of labels”, says Zahra.
Not euphoric about the award
“Even now when I have wonthe prestigious Peter Mackler Award,I am not happy at all. I don’t even want the media to publish about it. The posters circulating on social media have shaken me, my ideals, and my equations. Ten days have passed and I haven’t been to the field. I even didn’t want to share the news of my latest award but I had to in the end because I kept getting calls from my journalist friends, wanting to get the confirmation about this.”
What it means for a female photojournalist to work in Kashmir
For Zahra, it is perturbing in more ways than one and leaves a person psychologically wretched at times. Clicking pictures of the strife-torn places, charred bodies of army soldiers, militants and civilians have been leaving an unerasable mark on Zahra’s mind. An incident that happened three years ago still haunts her and since then she has been witnessing a drastic change in her behaviour.
A civilian, Firdous Ahmad, who was married just two years ago was killed near to the encounter site in south Kashmir’s Pulwama in the year 2017. Zahra decided to cover the human angle story of slain man’s family and all alone went to his home. “When I entered into the house, women were wailing and in one smoky corner of the room was a young woman with eyes haggard and features livid. She wasn’t crying and her eyes were set at the gate. She was Rukhsana, widow of the slain civilian. Firdous had left behind an year old daughter at the time of his death, his wife was 9 months pregnant with his second child. I remember someone brought a newspaper to Rukhsana and showed her the news of her husband. As she saw her husband’s photo, she burst in tears and her wailing was ruthlessly piercing. I too began to weep and with moist eyes clicked her pictures. Trust me, I wasn’t able to see anything from the viewfinder of my camera as tears constantly were rolling down my eyes,” Zahra told India Tomorrow.
“Since then, I have been getting nightmares of that lady, her young daughter and I always wonder what would happen to that family and countless other families who suffer in a similar way. Every day I have been seeing people wailing for their dear ones. The charred corpses of militants, dead bodies of army soldiers on stretchers and I always wonder what life has become like in Kashmir?”
Many of Zahra’s friends have been suggesting her to seek counselling from a therapist but she says it would weaken her resolve to fight the anxiety on her own. “Sometimes I scream at my family for no reason and at times I hate social gatherings or sharing happy moments with my family. When you see so much sadness around, you unknowingly become its inseparable part.”
Support from colleagues was missing from day one
“In many of my past interviews, I have lied about being respected and supported by my colleagues. The fact is that I have been hounded, ridiculed, and trolled by them merely because I was a female and infiltrating into their world. Many of them have been secretly launching smear campaigns against me on social media and even in open expressing their disgruntlement about how could Kal ki Ladki is winning international fame. I am stoically facing all these ordeals.”
Leaving Journalism
“I wouldn’t be leaving journalism but would prefer to go for higher studies. I would strive to hone my skills for now. Baki Khuda kae hawale hai. At least for time being, I would be away from police charges, threats from militant outfits, and smear campaign unleashed through the patriarchal mindset of my co-workers. For now, I want to be away from the madding crowd.”
(Peerzada Ummer is Correspondent of indiatomorrow.net)
