Srinagar: Four youth from Jammu and Kashmir have been selected by the United States of America’s State Department for its prestigious “Legislative Fellowship Program” and will spend four weeks in the US, starting from October 14.
Fahad Shah, a journalist who has been working in Kashmir for almost a decade and a graduate from SOAS University in London, is one of the selected candidates. Shah is the founding editor of The Kashmir Walla magazine and is also the Director of The Kashmir Institute – a think-tank focusing on issues concerning Jammu and Kashmir.
Ruwa Altaf, another of the selected candidates, is a Kashmiri journalist based in New Delhi, who is currently a staffer at the Hindustan Times. She has previously worked with Indo-Asian News Service, BBC, Barcroft Media and the Indian Express.
Habeel Iqbal is a lawyer based in Shopian, who practices law in the district and high court and has been involved with several civil society initiatives, is the third candidate selected.
Dr. Zainab Akhter, from Zanskar (Kargil), is the final selected candidate. She has a Doctorate degree in International Relations from JNU and works as a researcher at the IDSA’s South Asia Centre.
The four participants will be traveling to Washington D.C. for the program and will be associated with organizations relevant to their fields of work. The Legislative Fellows Program (LFP) is funded by the U.S. Department of State and managed by World Learning. Under the program participants will travel to several U.S. cities for professional assignments, seminars and observational site visits. This edition of LFP will have 12 participants from India and a group of 14 participants from Pakistan.
