Srinagar: Srinagar-based journalist Marouf Gazi, 26, has been conferred with the Third NWMI Fellowship (Network for Women in India), instituted to support women journalists working in various kinds of challenging situations. Gazi is presently working as a senior reporter with Srinagar based Free Press Kashmir.

“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,” NWMI said in their statement.

NWMI had received Among 28 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.

Most of the applicants live and work in remote areas and in very challenging political and economic situations. All of them highlighted the difficulties of pursuing journalism as a career due to gender and other barriers.