Gita Sahgal
| Gita Sahgal | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1956/1957 (age 60–61) Bombay, India |
| Residence | England |
| Nationality | British Indian |
| Alma mater | School of Oriental and African Studies |
| Occupation | Writer, journalist, film director, human rights activist. |
| Parent(s) | Nayantara Sahgal (mother) |
| Relatives |
Vijayalakshmi Pandit (grandmother); Jawaharlal Nehru (great uncle) |
Gita Sahgal (Kashmiri: गीता सहगल (Devanagari), گیتا سہگل (Nastaleeq)), born 1956/1957 (age 60–61) in Bombay, India, is a writer and journalist on issues of feminism, fundamentalism, and racism, a documentary films director, 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, director of the campaign group CAGE (formerly Cageprisoners), that represents men detained at Guantanamo under extrajudicial conditions. She referred to him as "Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban". 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.
Sahgal left Amnesty International on 9 April 2010.
Gita Sahgal was born in India, the daughter of the novelist Nayantara Sahgal. She was raised as a Hindu, and says she is now an atheist. She is a great-niece of former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and the granddaughter of his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit. Schooled first in India, she moved to England in 1972, where she attended and graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She returned to India in 1977, and began working in the civil rights movement. She moved back to England in 1983.
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