Who Is Sanna Irshad Mattoo? Pulitzer-Winner Scribe Stopped From Travelling Abroad

Sanna Irshad Mattoo, a Kashmiri photojournalist, was reportedly stopped by immigration authorities while trying to fly from Delhi to Paris in spite of holding a valid French Visa. Mattoo was travelling to the French city for a book launch and photography exhibition as one of 10 award winners of the Serendipity Arles Grant 2020.

The photojournalist was among the 2022 Pulitzer Prize winners for her photographs. She shared the prize with the Reuters team including the late Danish Siddiqui, Amit Dave and Adnan Abidi, for their coverage of the COVID-19 crisis in India.

In her tweet, Sanna wrote, "I was scheduled to travel from Delhi to Paris today for a book launch and photography exhibition as one of 10 award winners of the Serendipity Arles grant 2020. Despite procuring a French visa, I was stopped at the immigration desk at Delhi airport." She further added that she was provided with no reason as to why she was stopped from flying internationally. She also posted a photo of her cancelled ticket.

Who Is Sanna Irshad Mattoo?

Sanna is a Kashmiri photojournalist and documentary photographer who was born in the Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir. The Pulitzer Prize winner is currently based in Srinagar and works with the international news agency Reuters.

Sanna holds a Master's in Convergent Journalism from the Central University of Kashmir. In 2021, Mattoo became Magnum Foundation’s ‘Photography and Social Justice Fellows.

Mattoo's works have been published in many international and national publications like Al Jazeera, The Nation, TIME, TRT World, South China Morning Post, and Caravan Magazine before she joined Reuters. Reportedly, she has also contributed to the ZUMA press agency based in California, America.

Her Al Jazeera story detailed the hardships faced by journalists after the revoking of Article 370 and the restrictions that followed. The Pulitzer introduction for the photojournalist reads, "Ranging from groundbreaking news to in-depth storytelling, her work concentrates on depicting the tension between the seeming ordinariness of life and the stark symbols of a menacing militarised milieu of Kashmir."

"The word shaheed (martyr) in Urdu also means witness. As a photographer, I take the work of being a witness as sacred. To me, it means respecting someone’s grief, and their space to mourn, while also finding new, alternate and subtler ways to tell stories. It means not only having ethical guidelines but using photography as ethics in practice," the Kashmiri scribe was quoted saying by Magnum Foundation's fellowship.

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