Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan was arrested in September 2018 & remains in jail for an article he wrote profiling Burhan Wani. Today, photojournalist Masrat Zahra was charged with inciting youth with her powerful photos & Peerzada Ashiq, a journalist with The Hindu was summoned to be interrogated by a police official 40 km from his home in Srinagar. He has since been charged for an article which authorities claim was factually incorrect & which ‘could cause fear or alarm in the minds of the public’. An additional offense was that it was published without seeking approval from police authorities.
Clearly, India is accelerating its attacks on Kashmiri journalists who have been fearlessly protesting the repression for several years. Their courage equals that of Rohingya citizen journalists who reported from Arakan state whilst under genocidal siege from the Burmese Army & that of Palestinian journalists who report while being targeted by Israeli snipers.
#StandWithAasifSultan
#StandWithMasratZahra
#StandWithPeerzadaAshiq

A beautiful tribute to journalist Masrat Zahra by Aazib Manzoor:

“Masrat Zahra is everything this brutal state is afraid of:
She’s a Kashmiri, a defiant reporter, a truthful journalist and above all, an undaunted woman.  Her crimes are none but to speak what she sees and what she sees are the crimes of occupation.”

This was the style of bouffant when I graduated high school in 1962 at a time when society was just beginning to rebel against the stifling social mores of the 1950s McCarthy era. It’s an uptight kind of bob which would be replaced within a few more years by much freer hair styles, including long un-styled hair dos. If I dare to post this photo, you should dare to post yours.

Kashmiri photojournalist Masrat Zahra has been arrested & booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) & a FIR registered against her for social media posts that glorify ‘anti-national’ activities & have the criminal intent to incite youth to anti-national activities. She is a journalist of international renown whose work has appeared in leading media venues & who was arrested only for doing her job of reporting reality in occupied Kashmir.
An international clamor & defense must be organized for this courageous journalist in concert with a defense campaign for journalist Aasif Sultan who was arrested in September 2018 & remains in jail also for the crime of reporting reality in occupied Kashmir.

This is an article from September 2019 about Masrat in her own words which includes a gallery of her remarkable work:

https://caravanmagazine.in/conflict/a-woman-photojournalist-navigates-state-and-patriarchy-in-the-valley?

 

Conspiracy whack jobs in the US are out protesting the lockdown which is probably one of the least restrictive in the world where lockdowns are imposed. It’s the least restrictive because Trump opposes it to look good for the elections. Other placards read ‘Social distancing equals communism.’ This woman wants her ice cream whether or not there is a pandemic & she’s going to stomp her pretty little feet in her expensive sneakers to get it. She’s all tuckered out after killing grandma to save capitalism.

(Photo from several sources on social media)