Gita Sahgal

Who is Gita Sahgal?

Gita Sahgal, born 1956/1957 in Bombay, India, is a writer and journalist on issues of feminism, fundamentalism, and racism, a director of prize-winning documentary films, and a women's rights and human rights activist.

She has been a co-founder and active member of women's organisations. She has also been head of Amnesty International's Gender Unit, and has opposed the oppression of women in particular by religious fundamentalists.

In February 2010 she was suspended by Amnesty as head of its Gender Unit after she was quoted by The Sunday Times criticising Amnesty for its high-profile associations with Moazzam Begg. She referred to him as "Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban". He is the director of a campaign group called Cageprisoners, representing men detained at Guantánomo under extrajudicial conditions. Amnesty responded that she was suspended "for not raising these issues internally." Speaking in her support were the writer Salman Rushdie, the journalist Christopher Hitchens and others, who also criticised Amnesty for this affiliation. Begg disputed her claims of his jihadi connections and said that he did not consider anyone a terrorist who had not been convicted of terrorism.