Srinagar-based independent journalist Marouf Gazi, 26, has been conferred the Third NWMI Fellowship (2019), instituted to support women journalists working in various kinds of challenging situations.
This year, the NWMI received 28 excellent applications from Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand. The applicants belonged to various minorities, marginalized communities like Adivasis and Dalits, and also represented a range of media forms – print, online, television, radio and community media.
Though faced with a difficult choice, the NWMI Fellowship Selection Committee unanimously decided to confer this year’s fellowship on Srinagar-based Marouf Gazi in recognition of her exceptional work spanning a range of topics from Kashmiri women’s resistance and human rights in the Kashmir Valley to less talked about issues like domestic violence and Kashmiri fashion design. Her rigorous work in an extremely challenging environment for women journalists shows immense promise.
