In 2016, when Valley witnessed turmoil, Mehak spoke about it with expression like "Kashmir cries & we stay deaf"

Mehak Mirza Prabhu, a professional storyteller from Maharashtra's Mumbai, suddenly hogged the limelight after she was spotted holding a "Free Kashmir" placard at the Gateway of India during a protest against Sunday's violence at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

The Mumbai Police on Tuesday filed an FIR against her under Section 153b of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This means writing/displaying something that harms the national integration of this country.

So who is this woman? Is she a radical as pointed out by some people?

Photo of Mehak Mirza holding "Free Kashmir" placard

Mehak was born as Tejal Prabhu in a Maharashtrian joint family in 1982. She is a writer and storyteller who writes fiction stories in multiple languages and runs an online storytelling school called 'Jhumritalaiya'.

Here's the link to Mehak Mirza Prabhu's YouTube channel.

The archived version can be seen here.

Tragedy struck Mehak at an early age. In 2001 when Mehak was still in college, she lost her family in a freak accident on Diwali. Her parents, brother along with an aunt and uncle died in the accident. Her grandfather too passed away on that very day after hearing the news.

Photo of Mehak Mirza's parents

Mehak suddenly had a lot of responsibilities and she took over her father's business. In 2005, she got married and changed her name. Mehak had a daughter from the marriage but in 2013, she got divorced. As a single mother, Mehak managed her home, her father's business and her website 'Jhumritalaiya'.

As a single mother, Mehak managed her home, her father's business and her website 'Jhumritalaiya'

Mehak has gone through clinical depression and fought it successfully. It was during the time when she dealt with depression that she started writing under a pen name - Mehak Mirza. Being influenced by Mirza Ghalib, she decided to adopt his name.

Being influenced by Mirza Ghalib, she decided to adopt his name

Since January 6, the day Mehak came into the limelight, she has been heavily trolled for raising the "Free Kashmir" placard. The people trolling her blamed it on a person named Mohammad Muneem Nazir with whom she worked for many years. But Mehak denied it.

In an interview with a TV channel recently, she admitted that she does have some Kashmiri friends and she indeed has worked with Muneem. But she denied that Muneem has anything to do with the Gateway of India incident. According to Mehak, Muneem was not even in Mumbai when she went for the protest on January 6.

In an interview with a TV channel recently, she admitted that she does have some Kashmiri friends and she indeed has worked with Muneem

Mehak has written and performed on stories on varied issues. She has done a TEDx talk in Somaiya Vidyavihar which dealt with stage fright and she has also spoken about her life. She has picked up issues of women's safety and sexual violence for her storytelling.





The archived version can be seen here.

Mehak has been vocal about social concerns too. She has shared videos concerning the Citizenship Amendment Act and Article 370. In 2016, when the Valley witnessed turmoil, Mehak spoke about it with an expression like "Kashmir cries & we stay deaf".

Hatred seeded so deep, grown big & dark. V r human or puppets?

Kashmir cries & we stay deaf.https://t.co/tkYUaqN9zz#kashmircrisis #NJNP Mehak Mirza Prabhu (@Mmirzaprabhu) August 10, 2016

The archived version of this can be seen here.

A few netizens such as Anshul Saxena posted a screenshot of a conversation that Mehak had with a person named 'Kashif Jamal' on social media. According to the screenshot being shared, Mehak during the conversation said, "No I am not talking about we being victims, but instead about our occupation. Parts where we are the cause of turmoil. 'Where civilians are not happy by your presence you have no business to be there.'"

We could not locate the above conversation between Kashif and Mehak on their Facebook pages. Mehak's Facebook page was active until Wednesday but it has now been deactivated, probably because she was getting a barrage of messages after the controversy. We have written to both Mehak and Kashif to find about the Facebook conversation that is being circulated. None of them have responded till the time of filing the story. The story will be updated as per their responses.

Many of the Mehak's stories became big hits, won accolades and got thousands of likes on social media. In one of her stories, Mehak says "writers don't find the stories, it's the stories that find you".

This time, it seems, she was caught by the wrong story at the wrong time.