Aliya Bashir, a Kashmiri journalist has been profiled as the ‘journalist of the month’ by the International Journalists Network.
After spending years as a freelance reporter, with stories in The Guardian, Huffington Post, News Deeply and more, Bashir now works as a senior reporter for Global Press Journal. She’s written about the widows left behind during the conflict in Kashmir, the ways climate change is affecting women, community radio and more.
Through IJNet, Aliya found a Pulitzer Center hostile environment training opportunity. She received a reporting grant from the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, and another reporting grant from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB).
“I think that as a female journalist, and a journalist who covers conflict or sensitive topics, [hostile environment training] is really important to know,” said Bashir. “My reporting has never been the same.”
“I felt like, why not contribute in my own unique way? I literally yearned for these stories of women. I would always see these feature stories, they were always from male reporters, and the issues were always male. So I would ask my mother, “Are any of the issues female out there?” I was curious about those things. I would think, “Why do they always show women as helpless, poor women?” Women were always doing the work, but they would not get highlighted like to try to give them dignity,” she said.
