Shazia Yousuf

Shazia Yousuf was born in downtown Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir. When she was three, armed war broke out in the valley against Indian occupation. Her childhood only reminds her of empty classrooms, bolted doors, friendlessness, and untold stories. When she grew, she wanted to be a storyteller. She did her undergrad in biology and her Master’s in Mass Communication and Journalism from University of Kashmir. In January 2009, she joined a local news magazine, KashmirLife as correspondent and began writing features about Kashmiri women and how the war changed their lives. She won a Ford Foundation International Fellowship in 2011 and she went to Boston, United States to do another Masters in Print and Multimedia Journalism at Emerson College. She returned to Indian administered Kashmir in the summer of 2013 and began writing women features for magazines and online news portals exclusively for women. This summer, she was awarded the Panos South Asia fellowship for her project on Women in Militarization, and will be writing about Kashmiri women and their perspective of war.