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Arfa Khanum Sherwani

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Arfa Khanum Sherwani
Born (1980-11-01) 1 November 1980 (age 44)
Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Journalist, News Anchor
Years active2000–present
Awards

Arfa Khanum Sherwani (born 1 November 1980) is an Indian journalist, and the senior editor of The Wire. She is an alumna of Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia. She has received the Red Ink Award and the Chameli Devi Jain Award.

Biography

Arfa Khanum Sherwani was born on 1 November 1980 in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. She completed her intermediate studies in the city and obtained a B.Sc. degree from the Chaudhary Charan Singh University in Meerut. She received a diploma in journalism from the Aligarh Muslim University and completed her doctoral studies at Jamia Millia Islamia, researching on Muslim and Dalit community in India.

Arfa Khanum Sherwani Biographical Note

Arfa Khanum Sherwani is one of the top broadcast journalists in India. Her news and opinion video shows in Hindi which are watched by millions of people across India have made her a household name in the country. In the time of a plaint and committed media which is actively helping India’s Hindu Nationalist government destroy its hard-earned democracy, Arfa’s hard-hitting and unsparing adversarial journalism is of immense public value. Her pro-people journalism that raises the most critical but inconvenient questions and the authority with which she comes on screen and asks these questions to the most powerful men and women in country, has made her a face of anti-establishment in India.

Arfa has spent two decades in the broadcast news sector covering politics, policy, governance issues and conflict with a special focus on social justice and issues of religious minorities. She currently works as a senior editor at The Wire (thewire.in), a financially and editorially independent multimedia news website. Arfa is a critical voice in India right now and a frontline democracy defender. While her unflinching courage in holding power to account and the empathy with which she gives voice to the people on the margins has given her massive popularity and the power to influence the masses, it has also made her a target of the ruling party BJP and its support groups like the Nazi-inspired RSS. 

Arfa has been a constant target of majoritarian troll army on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where she has millions of followers. In the year 2020, at the peak of anti-CAA ( Citizenship Amendment Act which was seen as an anti-Muslim law brough by Modi government) movement, BJP leaders distorted her speech and mobilised an aggressive online lynch mob against her.  https://thewire.in/communalism/arfa-khanum-sherwani-amu-speech-bjp-distortThe

Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement urging BJP leaders to stop encouraging online vitriol directed at her. Besides her impactful journalism, her unapologetic Muslim identity makes her even more vulnerable to both online and offline attacks. She is targeted for her work, her religion and her gender.

Aside from online threats and intimidation Arfa is facing a Rs 100 million defamation lawsuit against her for interviewing the godman and ‘Art of Living’ founder Sri Sri Ravishankar. The interview exposed his hypocrisy as a self-appointed mediator in the Ayodhya Mosque dispute. Ironically, the same interview won her the Red Ink Award for Excellence in Journalism for the Best Political Report of the year. She has several police complaints against her for her reports and tweets based on which the criminal charges can be pressed any time.

In an age where the majority of the mainstream media runs state-sponsored agenda of delegitimising political opposition, demonising and vilifying India’s minorities and poor, her fact-based reports stand out and puncture their narrative. Despite grave threats and intimidation, through her reports, she continues to speak truth to power and seek accountability from the people in power. Her video shows are a daily documentation of the lives Indian Muslims are forced to live under the majoritarian rule.

Her shows are a vivid illustration of how the current government and its state machinery works against 200 million Muslims, actively pushes them into discrimination and violence and has institutionalised their complete exclusion. Besides fearlessly documenting the everyday stories of injustices and oppression and crimes of the state on India’s poor and minorities, her pathbreaking work on Kashmir rattled the people in power.

She was one of the first journalists to visit the Kashmir Valley after the India government controversially revoked a key Article of the Constitution and stripped the state of Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy. Though the area was in a state of lockdown – in terms of security and communication – She was able to report from there and file comprehensive video stories on human rights abuses and the suppression of civil and political rights, challenging the false narrative of ‘calm’ being promoted by the government and Big Media.

Her reports were the first video reports to have emerged out of Kashmir. She videographed the human rights violations and injustices to Kashmiri people at great personal risk.

Arfa is one of the 10 women journalists who received the highest number of abuses from a secret app called Tek Fog with “BJP footprints”. The ruling party used the app to support its propaganda by influencing social media trends and monitoring conversations. Along with other prominent Muslim women, she was attacked online using an App which morphed her pictures and put an online auction on her. This was a clear attempt to demean and humiliate her and silence her voice. ( https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/02/02/bulli-bai-muslim-women-sale-india-sud-intl-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/around-the-world/Education, Awards and fellowships

Arfa holds a Ph.D on socio-political study of Dalits (the lowest caste group) and Muslims in India. She has been invited to deliver lectures at global forums and by the topmost US and global universities such as Harvard, Oxford, LSE, University of Toronto and Global Media Forum (Germany). She is an ‘Advisor in Residence’ for the Led By Foundation supported by Harvard University, which works as a leadership incubator for Muslim women

1.She won the Red Ink Award for Excellence in Journalism for the Best Political Report of the year (TV category), 2019 for my interview with the godman and ‘Art of Living’ founder Sri Sri Ravishankar.

2.She won the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Journalist for the year -2019 for my reports on Kashmir and coverage of India’s parliamentary elections. 3.She was chosen for the Robert Bosch Media Ambassadors Fellowship (2017) where I researched ‘The Rise of Right Wing Politics in Germany’

4.She represented India in the ‘Senior Journalists Seminar Fellowship’ by the East-West Centre, United States, 2018.International assignments – Arfa has covered the Afghan elections of 2014 and the Iranian presidential elections of 2009. In 2016, She travelled to Iraq and made a documentary, ‘Jihad against ISIS’, on the ongoing conflict and the role of private militias in the country. She has filed detailed video reports from Pakistan, Bangladesh Nepal and United Kingdom.

Personal Life :

She grew up in a small town, where she had her first brush with the inequalities and violence that are a part of the life of women and minorities in India. When she started working as a journalist in the national capital, she realised the power of information and how it can transform lives.

At the age of 12, she experienced first-hand how communal hatred affects the lives of those who are its targets. But that experience strengthened her resolve to help create a world where human rights are protected and respected and no child must go through this sort of trauma.

Harassment

In 2020, a 42-second clip was cut from a speech Sherwani delivered at the Aligarh Muslim University over Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and given a distorted interpretation to harass her. While talking to the Committee to Protect Journalists, she stated that she has received death and rape threats on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Sherwani was a victim of online abuse through the Bulli Bai app, which listed several prominent Muslim women on a mock auction.

Awards

References

  1. "بلند شہر کی شیرنی عارفہ خانم شیروانی بیباک، بہادراورآزاد خاتون صحاف". UrduCity.in. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  2. "Global Scribes' Body Asks BJP Leaders to Stop Online Harassment of The Wire's Arfa Khanum Sherwani". The Wire. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  3. "Journalist Arfa Khanum's speech on CAA shared with distorted interpretation by BJP office-bearers". Alt News. 27 January 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  4. Chandran, Rina (6 January 2022). "Auction of Muslim women on Indian app shows tech weaponised for abuse". Reuters. Archived from the original on 13 January 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  5. "Online harassment spurs outrage among journalists; tougher regulations need of the hour". The Probe. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  6. "Journalists Rohini Mohan, Arfa Khanum Sherwani awarded Chameli Devi Jain award". The News Minute. 13 March 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  7. "Rohini Mohan and Arfa Khanum Sherwani win the Chameli Devi Jain Award for outstanding woman journalists". News Laundry. 13 March 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  8. "About Arfa Khanum Sherwani". Ted. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  9. "Okhla-based journalist Arfa wins journalism award". Okhla Times. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  10. "The Wire's Arfa Khanum Sherwani to Receive Kuldip Nayar Patrakarita Samman Award". The Wire. 7 November 2022. Archived from the original on 19 November 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  11. "'Support Journalists While They're Alive': The Wire's Arfa Khanum Sherwani Awarded Chhatrapati Samman". The Wire. 22 November 2023. Archived from the original on 2 December 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.

External links

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