Aarefa Johari is a journalist from Mumbai, India, with over 11 years of experience covering gender, culture, communities, urban development and more. She began her career as a reporter and features writer with Hindustan Times, a national daily broadsheet. Since 2014, she has been reporting for Scroll.in, a leading digital news publication in India, where she has covered various aspects of gender, human rights, social justice and politics. She is excited to return to the newsroom in full-time capacity with this new role. In February 2021 she received a two-month fellowship from Behanbox Media to cover women’s land rights in the state of Gujarat. Aarefa is an advocate against Female Genital Cutting and is a co-founder of Sahiyo, an organisation working to end the practice in Asian communities. She is also a 2013 alumnus of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program.
Beat: Opportunities – Work and gender
What is the future of work in India? A stagnant economy has deepened the country’s unemployment crisis. Women face the steepest challenges in finding and retaining paid work – largely because they are denied the freedoms available to men. This reporter explores stories on livelihoods, labour and gender through a diverse lens.