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Gita Sahgal, born in India,^[3] is a writer and journalist on issues of feminism, fundamentalism, and racism, a director of prize-winning documentary films, and a human rights activist.^[4]

Sahgal has battled suppression of women by fundamentalists.^[5] She has been a co-founder and an active member of both Southall Black Sisters and Women against Fundamentalisms.^[1] She has also been head of Amnesty International's Gender Unit.^[6]

In February 2010 she was suspended by Amnesty as head of its Gender Unit after she was quoted by The Sunday Times in an article about Amnesty, criticizing Amnesty for its high-profile associations with Moazzam Begg, the director of a campaign group called Cageprisoners, whom she referred to as "Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban".^[7] Amnesty responded that she was not suspended "for raising these issues internally." Among those who spoke up in her support was Salman Rushdie.

Sahgal is originally from India, and now lives in England.

She is the daughter of novelist Nayantara Sahgal. She is also the great-niece of former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and the grandaughter of his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit.^[8][9]

Schooled first in India, she then graduated from London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.^[1]

Among her various writings, in 1992, she contributed to and co-edited Refusing holy orders: women and fundamentalism in Britain with Nira Yuval-Davis.

In 2002 she was the producer of "Tying the Knot". The film was commissioned by the U.K.'s Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Community Liaison Unit, which was set up to handle the problem of British victims of forced marriage who have been, or may be, taken abroad to marry against their will. Sahgal said that while she was not against arranged marriage, she was against those that involve "pressure, emotional blackmail, the massive physical pressure of beatings and abduction".^[10] The educational video on marriage and freedom of choice was produced for use in schools, youth groups, and other organisations working with young people, examines marriage across various cultures, and was designed to promote discussion on the issues it raises.^[11]

She also made a film for Despatches, one of British TV’s main investigative documentary programs, on the subject of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a Punjabi woman brought to the UK by arranged marriage who was abused by her husband, set him on fire when he was drunk and asleep--killing him, and won the subsequent legal battle for her freedom.^[12]

Commenting on the use of rape in wars, Sahgal said in 2004 that it is a mistake to think such assaults are primarily about "spoils of war" or sexual gratification. She said rape is often used in ethnic conflicts as a way for attackers to perpetuate social control and redraw ethnic boundaries. "Women are seen as the reproducers and carers of the community," she said.^[13]

Salgahl spoke out in 2004 with regard to the fact that prostitution and sex abuse crops up wherever humanitarian intervention efforts are set up. She observed: "The issue with the UN is that peacekeeping operations unfortunately seem to be doing the same thing that other militaries do. Even the guardians have to be guarded."^[14]

She came to wide public attention in February 2010, when she was suspended by Amnesty International as head of the organisation's Gender Unit, after she was quoted by The Sunday Times in an article about Amnesty, criticizing Amnesty for its high-profile associations with Moazzam Begg, the director of a campaign group called Cageprisoners.^[15]

She called the links "a gross error of judgment", and said it was wrong to ally with "Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban".^[16] Cageprisoners has championed, among others, al-Qaeda member Anwar al-Awlaki, linked to three of the 9/11 bombers, the Fort Hood shooter, and the Christmas Day 2009 bomber. Sahgal argued that by associating itself with Begg and Cageprisoners, Amnesty is risking its reputation on human rights.^[17][18][19]

The Sunday Times published an article about Amnesty's association with groups that support the Taliban and promote "Islamic Right" ideas.^[7] Her views were quoted.^[7] Within a few hours of the article being published, Amnesty suspended her.^[7]

Sahgal issued a statement in which she explained further that she felt that Amnesty was risking its reputation by associating with and thereby politically legitimizing Begg, because Cageprisoners "actively promotes Islamic Right ideas and individuals".^[7] She headed off the argument that the issue was Begg's rights, by saying she has always opposed the illegal detention and torture of Muslim men, and been "horrified and appalled" by the treatment of people like Begg. But that the issue is not about Begg’s "freedom of opinion, nor about his right to propound his views: he already exercises these rights fully as he should. The issue is ... the importance of the human rights movement maintaining an objective distance from groups and ideas that are committed to systematic discrimination and fundamentally undermine the universality of human rights."

Her statement also said in part:

A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when a great organisation must ask: if it lies to itself, can it demand the truth of others? ... Amnesty ... has sanitized the history and politics of ... Begg and completely failed to recognize the nature of ... Cageprisoners....

I sent two memos to my management asking a series of questions about what considerations were given to the nature of the relationship with ... Begg and ... Cageprisoners. I have received no answer.... Amnesty has created the impression that Begg is not only a victim of human rights violations, but a defender of human rights....

I have been a human rights campaigner for over three decades, defending the rights of women and ethnic minorities, defending religious freedom and the rights of victims of torture, and campaigning against illegal detention and state repression. I have raised the issue of the association of Amnesty International with groups such as Begg’s consistently within the organisation. I have now been suspended for trying to do my job and staying faithful to Amnesty’s mission to protect and defend human rights universally and impartially.^[7]

On February 27, she said in an interview on National Public Radio (NPR) that Amnesty had provided Begg with a platform and legitimized him as a human rights defender, while Cageprisoners promotes people who in turn promote "a violent and discriminatory agenda".^[2] She also said that Cageprisoners' Asim Qureshi spoke supporting global jihad at a Hizb ut-Tahrir rally.^[2] And she noted that Begg had run a bookshop, a bestseller of which was a book by jihad-promotor Abdullah Azzam—a mentor of Osama bin Laden, and a founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has attacked civilians and been implicated in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.^[2]

Amnesty responded on its website:

[Sahgal] was not suspended ... for raising these issues internally... [Begg] speaks about his own views ..., not Amnesty International’s... Sometimes the people whose rights we defend may not share each others views–but they all have human rights, and all human rights are worth defending.^[20]

Amnesty's Senior Director of International Law and Policy, Widney Brown, also spoke on the NPR program.^[2] She said the fact that Begg's bookstore sold "books that undermine women's rights ... books that you don't like" shouldn't undermine him as a legitimate voice on Guantanamo Bay abuses.^[2] Responding to the observation that Amnesty had sponsored his tours through Europe, which might be seen as more than just hearing his views, she said that because Begg was one of the first detainees released, he was able able to dispel Guantanamo Bay's secrecy.^[2] She added that, as a British citizen, Begg has "an incredibly effective voice in talking to governments in Europe about the importance of" their accepting Guantanamo detainees.^[2] As to the praiseworthiness of Sahgal's work, she said:

There's no question about it. Gita is incredibly intelligent, very strong analysis .... She's done great work for us. And I think the real tragedy of this particular circumstance is by going public in this particular way knowing that we were addressing her issue means that she's maybe undermining her own work in fact.^[2]

Salman Rushdie said:

Amnesty ... has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his group Cageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. It has greatly compounded its error by suspending the redoubtable Gita Sahgal for the crime of going public with her concerns. Gita Sahgal is a woman of immense integrity and distinction.... It is people like Gita Sahgal who are the true voices of the human rights movement; Amnesty and Begg have revealed, by their statements and actions, that they deserve our contempt.^[21]

Denis MacShane, a Member of the British Parliament, wrote Amnesty protesting its victimizing: "one of its most respected researchers because she rightly called into question Amnesty’s endorsement of Mozzam Begg whose views on the Taliban and on Islamist jihad stand in total contradiction of everything Amnesty has fought for."^[22] He called "Kafkaesque" the fact that Amnesty--"the very organisation meant to defend human rights"--would threaten the career of Saghal for her having exposed "an ideology that denies human rights".^[22]

Writing in The National Post, writer Christopher Hitchens said "It's well-nigh incredible that Amnesty should give a platform to people who are shady on this question and absolutely disgraceful that it should suspend a renowned employee who gave voice to her deep and sincere misgivings," writing in The Independent, journalist and human rights activist Joan Smith said "Amnesty's mistake is simple and egregious", and writing in The Spectator journalist Martin Bright said: "It is Gita Sahgal who should be the darling of the human rights establishment, not Moazzam Begg," and columnist Melanie Phillips wrote "her real crime has been to expose the extraordinary sympathy by white ‘liberals’, committed to ‘human rights’, for Islamic jihadists--who are committed to the extinction of human rights."^{[23][24][25][26]} The Times (not connected to The Sunday Times) wrote: "In an extraordinary inversion of its traditional role, Amnesty has stifled its own still small voice of conscience," and journalist Nick Cohen wrote in The Observer "Amnesty is living in the make-believe world ... where it thinks that liberals are free to form alliances with defenders of clerical fascists who want to do everything in their power to suppress liberals, most notably liberal-minded Muslims."^[27][28] Farrukh Dhondy wrote in her support in The Asian Age, as did commentator Jonathan Power in Dubai's Khaleej Times.^[29][30]

Sahgal's mother, Nehru’s niece novelist Nayantara Sahgal, said she was:

proud of Gita for her very correct and courageous stand. Gita had been taking up the matter for a couple of years now, but after not having received a response she decided to go public — which was a very brave thing to do. Without going into his credentials, Amnesty has been supporting Begg, legitimising him, making him a partner and sponsoring his tour of Europe. They should at least have checked his credentials. It simply gives them a bad reputation.^[31]

Leaked extracts from an internal February 10, 2010, memo by Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific director Sam Zarifi echoed some of the concerns raised by Sahgal, were published by The Sunday Times.^[32] In the memo he said Amnesty should publicly admit its mistake in not establishing sufficiently publicly that it does not support all or even many of Begg's views. Zarifi said Amnesty "did not always sufficiently distinguish between the rights of detainees to be free from torture, and the validity of their views", adding that the organization "did not always clarify that while we champion the rights of all — including terrorism suspects, and more important, victims of terrorism — we do not champion their views”.^[33] In a subsequent letter to The Sunday Times, while Zarifi did not retract any of the above, he said he fully agreed with the measures Amnesty took in response to Sahgal sharing her views in public.^[34]

An organization called Human rights for All formed in her defense.^[35]

• Refusing holy orders: women and fundamentalism in Britain, co-editor with Nira Yuval-Davis, and contributor, Virago Press (1992), WLUML (2002), ISBN 1853812196

• Looking at class: film, television and the working class in Britain, Sheila Rowbotham, Huw Beynon, "Chapter: Struggle Not Submission", Rivers Oram Press, 2001, ISBN 1854891219
• Feminist postcolonial theory: a reader, Reina Lewis, Sara Mills, Chapter: "The Uses of Fundamentalism", with Nira Yuval-Davis, Taylor & Francis, 2003, ISBN 0415942756
• The situated politics of belonging, Nira Yuval-Davis, Kalpana Kannabirān, Ulrike Vieten, "Chapter: Legislating Utopia? Violence Against Women: Identities and Interventions," SAGE, 2006, ISBN Ch1412921015

• "Gita Sahgal: A Statement", 7 February 2010
• Human Rights for All website
• How Amnesty chose the wrong poster-boy, David Aaronovitch, The Times, 9 February 2010
• Letter to Amnesty from Denis MacShane, Member of British Parliament, 10 February 2010