How Vlogger Amreen’s murder is an attempt to silence women artists from Afghanistan to Kashmir
Amreen Bhat (35), Kashmir’s first entertainment Vlogger and YouTuber, shot dead in terrorist violence at her home in Budgam’s Chadoora area on Wednesday, 25 May, has left behind big shadows of fear. In the last 24 hours, at least 6 female singers and artists made frantic phone calls to a senior television and theatre producer, whispering to him that they were all frightened after Amreen’s brutal assassination. They were advised to be ‘calm’. Married in 2012 and divorced in just two months, Amreen discovered a small livelihood in her petty performances in some songs and drama serials at Doordarshan Kendra (DDK) Srinagar. Soon she quit television and explored better opportunities in social media—Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok. As her followers and subscribers multiplied on all platforms, she became the sole bread-earner for her small family—an elderly father, Khizar Mohammad Bhat, and sister Razia who lives at the same parental house with her husband and 11-year-old son Farhan, at