Asia Perspectives: Interviews
Asma Jahangir: The Military in Pakistan
Asma Jahangir is a leading human rights advocate in Pakistan. A prominent lawyer, she has worked both in Pakistan and abroad to prevent the exploitation of religious minorities, women, and children. She is currently UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief of the Commission on Human Rights.
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AsiaSource Interview with Rituparno Ghosh
Acclaimed Bengali film director Rituparno Ghosh has been referred to as the heir to legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray. He has directed and written screenplays for eleven films, all but one in Bengali. Chokher Bali ("A Grain of Sand"), nominated for the Golden Leopard at the 2003 Locarno International Film Festival, was screened at the Asia Society as part of the Third Annual South Asia Human Rights Film Festival.
AsiaSource Interview with Sabiha Sumar
Sabiha Sumar is a filmmaker from Pakistan, whose first feature film, Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters) screened at the Asia Society as part of the Third Annual South Asia Human Rights Film Festival in April 2005. In this interview with AsiaSource, she discusses her previous work as a documentary filmmaker, Khamosh Pani and her future projects.
Development as Freedom: AsiaSource Interview with Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 "for his contributions to welfare economics" and for restoring "an ethical dimension" to the discussion of vital economic problems. He has taught at universities worldwide and is presently Lamont University Professor at Harvard.
AsiaSource Interview with Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi
Iranian lawyer and human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi was awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her work promoting democracy and human rights. Ms Ebadi has led efforts to change Iran’s discriminatory laws against women, to provide more protection for street children, and to free those detained for expressing their opposition to the government.
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim:
AsiaSource Interview with Mahmood Mamdani
Mahmood Mamdani is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the Departments of Anthropology and International Affairs, and Director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University. In this interview with AsiaSource, he discusses his most recent book, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror (Pantheon, 2004).
Bush in Babylon: An Interview with Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali is an internationally renowned political commentator, novelist and playwright based in London. Here he discusses the US military operation in Iraq, perceptions of 9/11 in the Muslim world, the long-term objectives of American foreign policy in the Middle East, the stability of the Musharraf regime in Pakistan, and the prospects for a more equitable global order.
Al-Jazeera and Muslim Public Spheres
Hafez al-Mirazi is the Washington Bureau Chief for Al-Jazeera Television. Here he discusses the origins of Al-Jazeera, the implications of the current "War on Terror", possible motives behind the war in Iraq, and the relative stability of non-democratic regimes in the Middle East.
Sharmeen Obaid on Terror's Children
Sharmeen Obaid is a graduate student and filmmaker. In this interview, she discusses her film Terror's Children on Afghan refugee children in Karachi, and her forthcoming project for the Discovery Times Channel.
Interview with Barnett Rubin on Afghanistan
Considered one of the world's foremost experts on Afghanistan and the surrounding region, Barnett Rubin discusses the Bonn Agreement (which he partly authored), the security and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, opium production and trade, and Islamist movements in Central Asia.
Civil Liberties after 9/11: An Interview with Dalia Hashad
Dalia Hashad, the Arab, Muslim, South Asian Advocate in the ACLU's Campaign Against Racial Profiling, discusses the curtailment of civil liberties, the USA PATRIOT Act, illegal detentions, and INS registration.
Interview with Talal Asad, author of Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity
Talal Asad, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York (CUNY)
Graduate Center, discusses religious revivalist movements, human rights, Shariah law and the modern state.
José Ramos-Horta on the Future of East Timor
José Ramos-Horta, Nobel laureate and Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of East Timor, was a leading figure in the country's liberation movement. In this interview, Mr Ramos-Horta discusses various foreign policy and domestic issues confronting the new nation-state.
An Interview with Shabana Azmi
Shabana Azmi is an internationally acclaimed actress, Member of the Indian Parliament, UN Goodwill Ambassador, and the recipient of an unprecedented five National Awards for Best Actress in India. Here Ms Azmi discusses her acting career, the relationship between art and politics, and her commitment to social justice.
The Year of Living Dangerously: An Interview with Chris Hilton
A new documentary by Chris Hilton, Shadow Play, reveals Western complicity in the anti-communist purges in Indonesia in 1965-66, what the CIA itself has termed "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century." In this interview, Chris Hilton, the award-winning documentary filmmaker, explains why he became interested in the subject, and the conditions that made the documentary possible.
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Unholy War: An Interview with John Esposito
In this interview, Professor John Esposito, author of several books on Islam and University Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University, discusses his new book, Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
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Women and Islam: An Interview with Lila Abu-Lughod
Lila Abu-Lughod is a professor of anthropology at Columbia University who has worked on women's issues in the Middle East for more than twenty years. Here she discusses this issue in the context of the American war in Afghanistan.
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Central Asia on the Brink: An Interview with Ahmed Rashid
Ahmed Rashid is the Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review and has covered the region extensively for the last twenty years. In this interview, he discusses his new book, Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, and the explosive situation unfolding in the region today.
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The Future of Afghanistan: An Interview with Ashraf Ghani
Ashraf Ghani is Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. In this interview with AsiaSource, Dr Ghani discusses the American war in Afghanistan, the exclusion of the Taliban from the talks held in Bonn, and the composition of the interim administration in Kabul.
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Aceh
in Crisis: An Interview with Shadia Marhaban
The insurgency
in Aceh, located on the northern tip of Sumatra in Indonesia, has
been escalating in recent weeks. AsiaSource spoke to Shadia
Marhaban, an activist in the region, about the origins of the
conflict. |
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An
Expert's View: Barnett Rubin on Afghanistan
In this
interview, Professor Barnett Rubin, author of The Fragmentation
of Afghanistan, among other books, discusses, inter alia,
the long-term effects of the proxy war in Afghanistan and the rise
to power of the Taliban.
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Interview
with Helena Norberg-Hodge
Helena Norberg-Hodge, author of
Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh discusses the
implications of development as it is currently constituted and what
her vision of an alternative development would consist in.
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Interview
with Sanjib Baruah
Sanjib Baruah is Professor of Political
Science at Bard College and author of India Against Itself: Assam
and the Politics of Nationality. In this interview with
AsiaSource, Professor Baruah discusses the nature and origins
of the conflict in India's northeast.
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Muslim
Separatism in the Philippines
In this exclusive interview
with AsiaSource, Professor Thomas McKenna, author of Muslim
Rulers and Rebels, discusses the historical roots and present
trajectory of Muslim separatism in the Philippines.
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Asma
Jahangir
May 31, 2000
One of Pakistan's leading advocates
for human rights discusses the military government in Pakistan.
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Shafiqual Haque Choudhury
May 2, 2000
Founder and Managing Director of Association for Social Advancement (ASA), a highly specialized financial institution well regarded for its innovations in the management of micro-finance operations.
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Constancio
Pinto
October 22, 1999
Representative of the Council for
National East Timorese Resistance (CNRT) to the United Nations and North
America addresses a number of the problems currently facing East Timor.
Dr.
Chris Beyrer
October 14,1999
Director of the Johns Hopkins
Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program talks about the
issues surrounding the rapid spread of AIDS in Asia.
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The views represented on the ASIP website are not necessarily
those of Asia Society or its funders.
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