Monitoring Desk: Photojournalist from Indian Occupied Kashmir Masrat Zahra who recently won Anja Niedringhaus Courage In Photojournalism Award has said that she will focus her work on a documentary she had been thinking about since long.
She said she desired to produce a documentary to tell the world Untold stories of brutalities of Indian forces conducted in Indian Occupied Kashmir.
Masrat Zahra who had already awarded before came into world focus when Cyber Police Srinagar on April 18 lodged an FIR against her for allegedly ‘uploading anti-national posts with criminal intention to induce the youth and to promote offences against public tranquility. She in her talk with BBC said that she was (is) a photojournalist and this is her professional duty to expose her area of work (Indian Occupied Kashmir) through her photos. She had been harassed, intimidated, and threatened for dire consequences because she was uploading photos of Kashmiri women faced the wrath of Indian forces.
Journalists in Kashmir are either oppressed by the security forces or by the government. https://t.co/fVSBjqEwOY
— Masrat Zahra (@Masratzahra) April 16, 2020
Masrat Zahra needs gear (equipment/software) for her work including good still cameras because she had been working with basic photographic tools.
“I will update my [photography] gear, I will buy professional gear and editing software. I will then continue my freelance work, as well as on my long-term documentary project on forgotten and untold stories of Kashmir,” said Zahra while talking to Subrang India (SabrangIndia) on the telephone.
Masrat Zahra got her Master’s degree in Journalism from the Central University of Kashmir and decided to document agonies and apathies of Kashmiri women, children, and age people. She has one of the largest stocks of photos exhibiting the painful faces of women in Occupied Kashmir.
“My family is happy now. I got my award for my work not for sitting at home. It is my journalistic work. I use my social media as my portfolio. I get commissions, including some international work. There are many untold stories. I want to tell them. I will not stop. After I told my parents (about Award), I rushed to tell my teacher Shaukat Nanda. He is the one who helped me with everything, including submitting the application to be considered for this award,” said Zahra.
“Anja Niedringhaus Courage In Photojournalism Award” is an award in remembrance of Anja Niedringhaus (12 October 1965 – 4 April 2014) who was a German photojournalist.
Niedringhaus had covered Afghanistan for several years before she was killed on Friday, 4 April 2014, while covering the presidential election, after an Afghan policeman opened fire at the car she was waiting in at a checkpoint, part of an election convoy.
