Slow clap for you, Syed Areej Zaffar

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With Your Constant Rant Against The State, You Are Safe

Misplaced Bravado, Areej

Surely a woman of your intelligence cannot approve of the way militants are killing innocent civilians. Try some of your freedom of expression to question the terror ecosystem. Perhaps you may get some new learning into how much freedom of expression they grant to you

Slow clap for you, Syed Areej Zaffar. You are a performer, I am not. You can post on your hugely popular Instagram handle this verse with seething rage: Mera mujhse sab chheena, zabano ko bhi katwaya…  And you can post with the hashtag #RambaghFakeEncounter: Ae shaheedo tumhare khoon as inquilaab ayega! And again you can post this image of you wearing the pheran and holding the kangri with red blood-like dots on your face. The dots are supposed to look like pellet marks. The words with the image: I come from the land where autumn sheds more dead bodies than the leaves. I COME FROM KASHMIR. For a terrorist like Mehran, you write shaheedo tumhare khoon as inquilaab ayega. Does it matter to you that Mehran and other militants killed Dr Makhan Lal Bindroo, such a popular and helpful chemist? Does it matter to you that Mehran and other militants picked out a Sikh woman principal and a Hindu teacher from among a crowd of teachers and pumped bullets into them? Does it matter to you that these militants killed a Muslim salesman thinking that he was the Pandit owner of the store? Does such perverted thinking not matter to you? On the death of Syed Ali Geelani, you post Shaheed kabhi marta nahin, Har ghar mein zinda Geelani.

Serious, Areej, slow clap for you. You can post this all because you know that with this pro-terror political positioning, you are safe in Kashmir. You are the heroine for the terror ecosystem. You whitewash their terror reign. Now you are protected.

I Want To Speak Out Against The Terror Ecosystem. I Have To Hide I want to speak out against terror. I want to end this charade of conflict around us. But I have to hide. I cannot reveal my name. Why am I scared of revealing my identity? Because more young men like the terrorist Mehran you glorify and romanticize shall come along, and they shall pump bullets into me. This image with red dots supposed to look like pellet marks. The absurd messaging: I come from the land where autumn sheds more dead bodies than the leaves. I COME FROM KASHMIR.

Which Kashmir do you come from, Areej? A glance through your other posts on Insta, and your laments don’t seem to stick. There are posts of you cycling on the picturesque Zero Bridge. A soft romantic song is playing in the background. Awaz do humko, hum kho gaye. Kab neend se jaage, kab so gaye. There are posts of you doing good, healthy comedy. There are posts of you doing the rocking Ladishah act – our traditional folk ballad with humour and satire. There’s a post of you in which the Sri Lankan mega hit Manike Mage Hithe playing in the background. What did you say? Autumn sheds more dead bodies…?

Look at the lies you post! Mera mujhse sab chheena, zabano ko bhi katwaya… Mind you, far from chheena or snatch, you live in the Kashmir that has given you everything. Zabano ko bhi katwaya … Seriously, Areej? You are a star performer and social media influencer and Ladishah because of your zabaan.  And you are accusing the state: Zabano ko bhi katwaya. Wow! A friend just shared a post with me. It was published on The Kashmir Monitor on November 27. The headline catches the eye. Why do Kashmiris share their private lives on public platforms?  Here is what the write-up says: “These days many brides and grooms have made it a point to upload their pictures on social media platforms like Instagram right when they are in the middle of or soon after the ceremony. Instagram has become a repository of all such moments that used to be private until recently but are now viewed and commented upon by anyone out there.”

We all are familiar with these beautiful photographs of Kashmiri brides, grooms and weddings on Instagram. We don’t mind this show off. We know we are like that only, and we love it. When I look at the hundreds of photographs of young Kashmiris on social media organizing lavish weddings and looking so affluent and chaming, your lie comes across so hollow. This is your message: I come from the land where autumn sheds more dead bodies than the leaves. I COME FROM KASHMIR. Fact is, Areej, that some 200 militants and their over-ground network want to keep up this charade of conflict. Youngsters of our age are studying where they like, if they can afford to. We are pursuing what we like. We are creating our own freedoms. And yet we must always beat these drums of how tormented we are in Kashmir. Your autumn sheds dead bodies bumkum…

But you also swing both ways, Areej. You participated in the Army event at Awantipore last year with your Ladishah act. Thereafter, you seem to have changed your mind. You are again posting posts of rage against the state. Yes, our Kashmir isn’t perfect. We have our problems. We are dealing with them, somehow, so that at least our children can live in a peaceful and harmonious environment.

It is clear from your comedy and your posts that you have a brilliant mind. Are people like you part of the problem? You won’t drop the conflict façade. And you romanticize and make heroes of terrorists like Mehran, who are the total antithesis of what our gentle and glorious civilization of coexistence is. I guess you choose the Kashmir you want to showcase to the world. Either it is the Kashmir which allows you to prosper and be a comic and a star with your Ladishah act. Or it is the Kashmir where you put on fake marks like pellet injury and create perverted perceptions on Kashmir for all who care to see.

Dishonest, Areej.

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