Zeyan Shafiq

Zeyan Shafiq (born Zeyan Jeelani; 21 July 2002)[2] is an Indian entrepreneur, software and app developer from Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir.[3] He founded KashBook in 2017 after the Jammu and Kashmir government banned social media services in the Kashmir Valley[4] and started Stalwart Esports in 2020 to promote India in competitive esports.[2]

Zeyan Shafiq
Shafiq In 2019
Born
Zeyan Jeelani Shafiq

(2002-07-21) July 21, 2002
Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir, India
NationalityIndian
Alma materRadiant Public School
OccupationEntrepreneur, Software and app developer
Known forKashBook, Stalwart Esports
TitleCEO of Stalwart Esports[1]
Websitez3yan.com

Personal life and education

Shafiq was born on 21 July 2002[5] to a Kashmiri Muslim family in Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir. His father, Shafiq Ul Hassan, is a software engineer,[6] and his mother, Asiya Shafiq, a civil servant in the Jammu and Kashmir revenue department.[3] He studied at the Army Goodwill School in Rajouri and completed his matriculation exams in January 2017 from the Radiant Public School.[7][8][3] He planned to study computer science engineering.[9]

KashBook
See also: Censorship in Kashmir

Along with his 19-year-old friend Uzair Jan, Shafiq developed KashBook in 2013, but decided to relaunch the website after a social media ban was imposed in Kashmir Valley by the PDP government on 26 April 2017.[10] They developed a website and mobile app so that people in Kashmir could communicate without connecting to a VPN.[9][11] KashBook had more than 10,500 users as of May 2017.[7]

The book India Connected by Ravi Agrawal includes a chapter about Shafiq, the internet shutdown in Kashmir, and his take on it with KashBook.[12]

Stalwart Esports

In January 2020, Shafiq started Stalwart Esports, a pan-India esports organisation to promote India’s position and participation in competitive eSports.[13][2] After the PUBG ban in India, he signed players from Pakistani team FreeStyle Esports, who already had qualified and played the PUBG World Championship.[14][2] He was concerned about reprisals, but none came. It was an unprecedented alliance between Indian and Pakistani gamers.[15][2]

Shafiq continued the cross-border collaboration with Freestyle owner Abdul Haseeb, together forming Stalwart Freestyle in December 2020.[2][16]

References
  1. "Founder And CEO Stalwart Esports". stalwartesports.com. Stalwart Esports website. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  2. "How the Indian Ban on PUBG Brought Gamers From India and Pakistan Together". Vice India. 23 December 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  3. Jameel, Yusuf (21 May 2017). "Social Bee: Valley's 'Internet kid' overcomes social media ban". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  4. "KashBook, Kashmiri boy Zeyan Shafiq's Facebook circumvents social media ban in Valley". India. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  5. "About Zeyan Shafiq". z3yan.com. Personal website. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  6. "Meet Kashmir's own Mark Zuckerberg. He has created a social network in the valley where Facebook and Twitter are blocked". Business Insider. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  7. "Kashmir software enthusiast develops Kashbook". Greater Kashmir. 24 May 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  8. "Kashmiri teen launches Facebook-like app, thwarting social media ban in Valley". Indian Express. 18 May 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  9. "16-year-old develops Kashbook, Kashmir's own Facebook, after government banned social media websites". India Today. 16 May 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  10. "Countering social media ban in IHK, 16-year-old develops 'KashBook'". The Nation. 18 May 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  11. "A 16-Year-Old Kashmiri Boy Is Helping Thousands Reconnect in the Face of a State Ban on Social Media". The Better India. 18 May 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
  12. Agrawal, Ravi (1 October 2018). "Big Brothers,Internet Shutdowns & Internet.org". India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World's Largest Democracy. Oxford University Press. pp. 147–169. ISBN 978-0-19-085867-4.
  13. "How Pakistan gamers joined hands for Kashmiri's Indian PUBG team". Indian Express. 13 November 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  14. Lele, Nutan (6 October 2020). "Stalwart Esports Signs FreeStyle To Play PMPL After PUBG Mobile Ban". AFK Gaming. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  15. "Games without frontiers: Indians, Pakistanis team up for eSports". Economic Times. 17 December 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  16. "'Exciting framework is in the offing' for e-Sports: Fawad Chaudhry". www.thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.