Yana Mir, a social activist and journalist from Jammu and Kashmir, was honored with the Diversity Ambassador award in the British Parliament. Ms Mir's speech countering 'propaganda' against Jammu and Kashmir has gone viral, in which she said she is 'not Malala Yousafzai', the Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Pakistan who has taken refuge in Britain.
Speaking at an event organized by the Jammu and Kashmir Study Centre, UK, Ms Mir said: “I am not Malala Yousafzai… because I am safe and free in my homeland Kashmir, which is part of India. run away from my homeland and seek refuge in your country (UK). I can never be a Malala Yousafzai.”
I'm not Malala
I am free and safe in my home country #Kashmirwhich is part of India
I will never have to run away from my homeland and take refuge in your country: Yana Mir @MirYanaSY in the British Parliament. #SankalpDiwaspic.twitter.com/3C5k2uAzBZ
— Sajid Yousuf Shah (@TheSkandar) February 22, 2024
Ms. Mir then slammed the Nobel laureate for “defaming” India by calling Kashmir “oppressed” and said, “I take exception to all such toolkit members of social media and foreign media who have never bothered to cover Kashmir in India visit, but make up stories of oppression… I urge you to stop polarizing Indians on the basis of religion. We won't let you break us.'
Concluding her speech with a request, she said, “Stop coming after us and let my community in Kashmir live in peace.”
The video has been viewed well over a million times on X (formerly Twitter). Yana Mir in her reply to the video said, “The Malala theory was given to her by her sister”.
Ms Mir received the Diversity Ambassador Award from British MP Theresa Villiers in the presence of Bob Blackman and Virendra Sharma, both MPs in Parliament. Virendra Sharma is a British Indian Opposition Labor MP from Ealing Southhall near London.
Several users, including actor Anupam Kher, congratulated Ms Mir on X.
The Jammu and Kashmir Study Center (JKSC), UK, organized 'India's Sankalp Divas' at the House of Commons in Parliament, London. JKSC is a think tank dedicated to studying Jammu and Kashmir and the issues surrounding it.
Ms Mir said in her speech on 'Sankalp Divas' that she hopes: “The perpetrators living in Britain and Pakistan would stop defaming my country in international media and human rights forums and put an end to the unwanted selective outrage remotely from their cozy British homes. .Stop chasing us… thousands of Kashmiri mothers have lost their sons due to the dark hole of terrorism.”