Sunita। Viswanath | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Rutgers University (BA) SNDT Women's University (MA) |
Sunita Viswanath is an Indian-American activist who has worked in women's and human rights organizations. She co-founded the human rights organizations Women for Afghan Women, [1] Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, and Hindus for Human Rights. [2] [3]
Viswanath was born in Chennai, India. [4] She moved between London and Chennai during her early age, and later moved to the US when she was 19. [5] [6]
Viswanath received a BA in mathematics from Douglass College, Rutgers University and a MA in sociology from SNDT Women's University. [7]
In 2001, Viswanath co-founded the nonprofit humanitarian organization Women for Afghan Women (WAW). [8] In 2002, Viswanath edited the volume of essays, Women for Afghan Women: Shattering Myths and Claiming the Future. [9] Initially founded to support the Afghan community in Queens, WAW expanded in 2005 to support the rights and needs of women in Afghanistan. [8]
In 2011, Viswanath was awarded the Feminist Majority Foundation's Global Women's Rights Award for her work with WAW. [10]
In 2011, Viswanath co-founded Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus to be a progressive Hindu movement aligned with social justice commitments to anti-casteism and anti-racism. [13] One of Sadhana's projects, Project Prithvi, aims to protect the environment by cleaning up a beach in Jamaica Bay, Queens. [6] In 2015, she was honored as a White House "Champion of Change" for her work with Sadhana. [14] [15]
In 2019, Viswanath co-founded Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), a US-based advocacy organization that aims to promote religious pluralism in North America and South Asia. [16] In 2021, Viswanath wrote a piece with Raju Rajagopal in favor of the Dismantling Global Hindutva conference in the face of criticism. [17] In May 2021, Viswanath was a named defendant in a defamation case filed by the Hindu American Foundation, which was dismissed in 2022. [18] [19]
In 2020, Viswanath was named a Religious Life Adviser at Columbia University. [20] Despite a petition claiming she was "anti-Hindu" and asking her to be removed, the university continued to support Viswanath in her role. [21]
In 2020, Viswanath was appointed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to serve on the Faith-Based Sector Advisory Council to advise on the city's COVID-19 response, [22] and in 2021 she was part of Mayor-elect Eric Adams' transition committee. [23]
In 2021, Viswanath was named by the Center for American Progress as one of 21 faith leaders to watch. [24]
Viswanath serves on the advisory boards of UnFreeze Afghanistan and Population Media Center. [25] [26] In March 2022, Viswanath traveled to Afghanistan as part of a Women's Delegation for Peace and Education, which included Ruth Messinger, Medea Benjamin, Rev. Chloe Breyer, Daisy Khan and Masuda Sultan, to advocate for women's rights and to deliver humanitarian aid. [27] [28] [11]
In August 2022, Viswanath and Masuda Sultan co-founded Abaad: Afghan Women Forward, an NGO which works to provide humanitarian assistance and fund economic programs for women. Its first clients included those formerly served by WAW. [29]
Viswanath's first marriage was to writer Suketu Mehta. [30] [31] Her second marriage was to Stephan Shaw, who is an active member of Jewish Voice for Peace. [32] [33] [34] She has three sons, Gautama, Akash, and Satya. [35] [36] [37]
Hindutva is a political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1922. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the current ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar.
Freedom of religion in Afghanistan changed during the Islamic Republic installed in 2002 following a U.S.-led invasion that displaced the former Taliban government.
Dr. Massouda Jalal is the first woman in the history of Afghanistan who ran for the Office of the President of Afghanistan in 2002, 2004, and again in 2019. Dr. Jalal emerged as a leading voice of Afghan women after her election as the Representative to the 2002 Loya Jirga as she became one of the frontrunners for the position of Interim President of Afghanistan, opposite to ex-president Hamid Karzai.
Islamic feminism is a form of feminism concerned with the role of women in Islam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamic feminists advocate for women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, the movement's pioneers have also utilized secular, Western, or otherwise non-Muslim feminist discourses, and have recognized the role of Islamic feminism as part of an integrated global feminist movement.
The Hindu American Foundation is an American Hindu non-profit advocacy group founded in 2003. The organisation has its roots in the Hindu nationalist organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad America and its student wing Hindu Students Council.
Hinduism is the fourth-largest religion in the United States, comprising 1% of the population, nearly the same as Buddhism and Islam. The majority of American Hindus are immigrants, mainly from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the Caribbean, with a minority from Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Canada, Africa, Europe, Oceania, and other countries.
Afghan refugees are citizens of Afghanistan who were forced to flee from their country as a result the continuous wars that the country has suffered since the Afghan-Soviet war, the Afghan civil war, the Afghanistan war (2001–2021) or either political or religious persecution. The 1978 Saur Revolution, followed by the 1979 Soviet invasion, marked the first major wave of internal displacement and international migration to neighboring Iran and Pakistan; smaller numbers also went to India or to countries of the former Soviet Union. Between 1979 and 1992, more than 20% of Afghanistan's population fled the country as refugees. Following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, many returned to Afghanistan, however many Afghans were again forced to flee during the civil war in the 90s. Over 6 million Afghan refugees were residing in Iran and Pakistan by 2000. Most refugees returned to Afghanistan following the 2001 United States invasion and overthrow of the Taliban regime. Between 2002 and 2012, 5.7 million refugees returned to Afghanistan, increasing the country's population by 25%.
Anti-Hindu sentiment, sometimes also referred to as Hinduphobia, is a negative perception, sentiment or actions against the practitioners or religion of Hinduism. It exists in many contexts in many countries, often due to historical conflict. There is also scholarly debate on what constitutes Hinduphobia in the Western World.
The situation of human rights in Pakistan is complex as a result of the country's diversity, large population, its status as a developing country and a sovereign Islamic democracy with a mixture of both Islamic and secular law.
Zohra Yusuf Daoud ; is an American TV celebrity, radio show host, Miss Afghanistan (1972) and a journalist of Afghan descent.
Angana P. Chatterji is an Indian anthropologist, activist, and feminist historian, whose research is closely related to her advocacy work and focuses mainly on India. She co-founded the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir and was a co-convener from April 2008 to December 2012.
Masuda Sultan is an Afghan American entrepreneur, memoirist, and international human rights advocate.
Women for Afghan Women, also known as WAW, is the largest non-government Afghan women's rights organization in the world, founded in April 2001. It is dedicated to protecting the rights of Afghan women and girls. The staff are mostly Afghans and WAW adopts a community-based approach. For example, they conduct educational workshops about women's rights according to Islamic law.
Homonationalism is the favorable association between a nationalist ideology and LGBT people or their rights.
The Campaign against the Lebanese rape-marriage law Article 522, officially known as "A White Dress Doesn't Cover the Rape", was launched by the Lebanese non-governmental organization Abaad MENA in December 2016. Its aim was to abolish Article 522 of the Lebanese Penal Code, which allows a man to avoid punishment for rape if he produces a valid marriage contract with the victim. The campaign included street protests, the hashtag #Undress522 in social media, and a video of a raped women covered in bruises turned into a bride.
Roya Rahmani is an Afghan diplomat who served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to the United States and non-resident ambassador to Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic from December 2018 to July 2021. She is currently the Chair of the international advisory company in development finance — Delphos International LTD. She is also a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security, a senior advisor at the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center, and a senior fellow for international security at the New America Foundation. From 2016 to 2018, she served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to Indonesia, first ever ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and non-resident ambassador to Singapore.
Audrey Truschke is a historian of South Asia and an associate professor at Rutgers University. Her work focuses on inter-community relations in medieval South Asia, especially during the Mughal Empire. In 2017, she was conferred with the John F. Richards Prize in South Asian History by American Historical Association.
Hindus for Human Rights is a U.S.-based non-profit advocacy group founded in 2019.
The 2021 anti-Christian violence in Karnataka refers to the series violence against Christians by right wing Hindutva groups in the Indian state of Karnataka in 2021. The attacks increased after September 2021 when leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared of an "anti-conversion bill" in the state to check religious conversions. The violence again intensified over the Christmas period when right-wing mobs disrupted Christmas celebrations. The Human rights organisation, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) documented 39 violent incidents against Christians in Karnataka from January to November 2021, all carried out by Hindutva organizations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Hindu Jagrana Vedike, Bajrang Dal, and Banjara Nigama. The violence included physical assaults, sexual assaults against women, church vandalism, filming the attacks and later circulating the videos to celebrate.
Hindutva pop, often referred to as H-pop, is Indian pop music that promotes Hindutva or Hindu nationalist ideas. The music has become increasingly popular in the 2010s and 2020s and frequently includes lyrics targeting Muslims in India. The songs have sometimes been played on loudspeakers by Hindu mobs during violent attacks on Muslims.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)