Rana Ayyub facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rana Ayyub
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Rana Ayyub in 2017
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| Born | 1 May 1984 Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
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| Alma mater | Sophia College |
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| Relatives | Abdul Haq Azmi |
Rana Ayyub is an Indian journalist and writer. She writes opinion pieces for The Washington Post. She is also known for her investigative book, Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up.
Contents
About Rana Ayyub
Rana Ayyub was born in Mumbai, India. Her father, Mohammad Ayyub Waqif, was a writer for a magazine called Blitz. He was also an important part of a group of writers who wanted to bring new ideas to literature.
When Rana was young, her city had some difficult times with public unrest in 1992 and 1993. Her family then moved to Deonar, a neighborhood where many Muslim families live. Rana grew up there and is a practicing Muslim.
Her Career as a Journalist
Working at Tehelka
Rana Ayyub used to work for Tehelka, a news magazine in Delhi. The word Tehelka means "commotion" or "uproar." This magazine focused on investigative journalism and political news.
While at Tehelka, Rana took on a big project. She worked on a secret investigation that later became her book, Gujarat Files. After she finished this investigation, the magazine decided not to publish her story. Rana continued to work there for some more months. She later left Tehelka because she disagreed with how the organization handled a serious issue involving another staff member. After leaving, she started working on her own.
Writing for The Washington Post
In September 2019, The Washington Post invited Rana Ayyub to be a writer for their global opinions section. This means she writes articles sharing her views on important world events.
In 2021, Rana explained on a TV show that she can share her critical opinions about the government because she writes for international news groups. She mentioned that some news groups in India were making it hard for journalists to express their views freely.
In 2020, a book called Inquilab: A Decade of Protest was published. It included an open letter written by Rana Ayyub. In this letter, she protested against the choice of an actor, Gajendra Chauhan, to lead the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). The book collected important speeches and letters from the past ten years.
Important Work
The Gujarat Investigation
As an investigative journalist for Tehelka, Rana Ayyub started a long secret investigation. Her goal was to find out if politicians and government officials in Gujarat had hidden information about the 2002 Gujarat events.
Rana pretended to be 'Maithili Tyagi', a filmmaker from the American Film Institute. She spent about ten months in this disguise, making friends with the people she wanted to investigate. She was paid by Tehelka during this time. However, after all her hard work, the magazine decided not to publish her findings. They felt her recordings didn't offer new or important information.
Her Book: Gujarat Files
Even though Tehelka didn't publish her work, Rana Ayyub decided to share her findings in a book. Her book, Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up, contains the exact conversations she recorded secretly.
These recordings were made during her undercover investigation. They show what many government workers and police officers in Gujarat thought about the events of 2002 and police actions. Rana pretended to be 'Maithili Tyagi', a student who shared similar beliefs with a certain political group, to help her make these recordings.
Disagreement with Tehelka
The leaders of Tehelka, Tarun Tejpal and Shoma Chaudhury, disagreed with Rana Ayyub's claim that they stopped her story. They said her story was "incomplete" and "did not meet the necessary editorial standards."
Reporting from Kashmir
In 2019, Rana Ayyub traveled to Kashmir with another journalist, Dexter Filkins from The New Yorker. They went to report on the situation there after the Indian government changed Kashmir's special status.
Their report described difficult conditions for the people in Kashmir, including young people. This was very different from what the Indian government and state media were saying, which was that the region was calm. Before their report, it was hard to know the truth because there was no internet or phone service, and people couldn't move freely in Kashmir.
Awards and Recognition
Rana Ayyub has received many awards for her brave journalism:
- In October 2011, she won the Sanskriti award for great journalism.
- In 2017, she received a 'Citation of Excellence' at the Global Shining Light Award. This was for her secret investigation into government officials' involvement during the 2002 Gujarat events.
- Actress Richa Chadda said she was inspired by Rana Ayyub for her role as a journalist in the 2016 film Chalk n Duster.
- In 2018, she won the Most Resilient Journalist Award from Free Press Unlimited. This was for continuing her work even though she faced harassment and threats.
- In 2019, Time magazine listed her as one of ten journalists worldwide who face the most threats.
- In February 2020, she received the McGill Medal for journalistic courage at the University of Georgia's Grady College.
- She was honored with the 2020 Voices of Courage and Conscience Award from the Muslim Public Affairs Council of America.
- In 2021, she received the Excellence in International Journalism and Human Rights Award from Texas Tech University College of Media and Communication.
- Also in 2021, she won the Overseas Press Club Award for her excellent articles on international news in The Washington Post.
- On June 28, 2022, she was given the International John Aubuchon Award by the National Press Club.
- On October 23, 2024, she received the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) International Press Freedom Award.
Challenges and Threats
Rana Ayyub often faces online attacks, especially from social media users who support certain political groups in India. A report by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) found that Twitter has not done enough to stop the abuse against her. The report also noted that she receives hateful messages very quickly after she posts something online.
In April 2018, she reported these threats to the Delhi Police. However, the police closed the case in August 2020, saying they could not identify the people responsible.
Several experts from the United Nations Human Rights Council have spoken out about her situation three times. They warned that her life was in "serious risk" and asked Indian authorities to "act urgently to protect" her from death threats. The US State Department's 2020 Human Rights Report also mentioned the online harassment and death threats she faced. The international group Reporters Without Borders also discussed the hate speech against Rana Ayyub and asked the government to protect her.
In 2022, some groups created an app called Bulli Bai. This app was used to target Muslim women in India, including Rana Ayyub and other women journalists. They also faced thousands of hate messages from another secret app called Tek Fog. This app was reportedly used to spread certain political messages online.
