The Ghost of Snapped Shot

... for "Photo Most Likely to be Taken Out Of Context" sometime in the near future:

[Picture]

A veiled activist from the Muslim Khawateen Markaz (MKM) looks out from behind the mesh of a symbolic prison during a protest in Srinagar June 20, 2008. Police detained six activists of the MKM, a women's separatist organisation, during a protest demanding the release of all Kashmiri youths detained in Indian jails and to stop what the MKM said are the human rights violation by Indian security forces on the Kashmiri people since a rebellion broke out in the Himalayan region at the end of 1989. REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli (INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR)

Taken without the caption, this photograph elicits an immediate emotional response. I can easily imagine it being used to illustrate the plight of women in the Islamic world, or to perhaps show how certain governments mistreat their citizens.

Both are valid causes, of course—and both usually benefit from emotional imagery.

But, when taken in context, this photograph (full series) means something completely different, doesn't it?

A symbolic prison, created by a group of terrorist-aligned women, is not real in the least. And their protest, which is aimed at the lawful government of the Kashmiri state, is just as fraught with problems—considering that all of the claims of Indian human rights abuse in the area are—by nature of the fact that it's the militants who are complaining about it—questionable, at best.

But hey, why let a silly little thing like problematic context stop it from being published in an emotional plea?

Emotions are made to be manipulated, after all.

 Tags: fayaz kabli REUTERS #Thug Conferences

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