Core Group members of Sangat

BANGLADESH

Dina Siddiqi is a feminist scholar activist, who is currently a visiting scholar at the Centre for Study of Gender and Sexuality, New York University, U.S.  She has worked with many development and human rights NGOs in Bangladesh and has written extensively.

Fawzia Khondker Eva worked for many years with PROSHIKA as the head of its Gender Resource Team.  Currently, she is a long-term consultant on gender with UNDP Dhaka for a national project on police reforms.  She is one of the finest gender trainers in Bangladesh and very active in the women’s movement. 

Khusi Kabir has been working on development issues since the early Seventies. She runs Nijera Kori and is part of several national and international organizations, networks and campaigns.  She is one of the most prominent feminist and NGO leaders of Bangladesh and South Asia. 

Sultana Kamal is a lawyer by training, and works with Ain-O-Shalesh Kendra, a human rights organisation.  She has held important positions in Bangladesh and has been part of international organizations such as Women Living under Muslim Laws.

  

INDIA

 

Abha Bhaiya is a founder of Jagori, Jagori Grameen, Sangat and Kartini. She has been working with gender and development issues since the seventies.  She is one of the most experienced feminist activists and gender trainers in India and South Asia. 

Anuradha Kapoor is a founder of SWAYAM, a Kolkata-based feminist organization working primarily on violence against girls and women.  She is actively involved with the Indian and South Asian women’s movements. 

Kamla Bhasin has worked on gender and development issues since 1970 with NGOs and FAO’s Freedom from Hunger Campaign and Action for Development and FAO-NGO South Asia Programme. She is the Advisor of Sangat, Co-Chair of Peace Women Across the Globe, Bureau Member of South Asians for Human Rights, a Steering Committee Member of People’s SAARC etc. 

Nandita Gandhi is the founder of Akshara, Mumbai.  She is a scholar/activist who has written extensively on the women’s movement.  She has been active in the women’s movement for over two decades now. 

Roshmi Goswami is the founder of the North East Network and has worked and written extensively on gender, development, peace and conflict transformation issues, particularly in the context of the North East of India.  She is presently working with the Ford Foundation, India. 

Rukmini Rao has worked with SAHELI, New Delhi, Centre for World Solidarity and Deccan Development Society, Hyderabad and is the founder of Gramya, Hyderabad.  She has worked and written on livelihood and food security related issues. 

Sabrina Edwards is a Catholic Nun in the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (commonly known as Loreto Sisters) for the past seventeen years in India. She is the Founding Director of Darjeeling Mary Ward Social Centre, an organization that spearheads the development works of the Loreto Sisters in the region, focusing on women and children of tribals working in the tea plantations, marginal farmers of the mountains and landless stone breakers.

Suneeta Dhar has over 20 years of work experience with development organisations like PRIA, Delhi, Coordination Committee for the Beijing conference and UNIFEM.  Presently she is the Director of Jagori.

 

NEPAL

 

Binda Pandey is a Member of the Constitutional Assembly of Nepal from the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). Binda has been at the forefront of Nepal's trade union movement for the past 15 years.   

Mona Sherpa is a development worker and a women's rights activist from Nepal. She has been involved in various grassroots movements from the age of 18. She has worked with World Vision International, Room to Read, and is now with ActionAid International Nepal where she works as a Women's Rights Theme Leader. She is also engaged with a rural women's network called Mahila Adhikar Manch, the Freed Kamaiyas of Nepal and so on. 

Renu Rajbhandari is a trained medical doctor and founder of WOREC, Nepal.  She is an eminent leader of Nepali civil society and a human rights activist.  She has organized women’s human rights in Nepal and is working for their protection. 

 

 

PAKISTAN

 

Anis Haroon is a founder of Women’s Action Forum and presently the Executive Director of Aurat Foundation, Karachi.  She has been a political activist, a media person and an active member of South Asian organisations such as SAHR, Pak-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy.

Rubina Saigol is a feminist scholar/activist who has been active in Women’s Action Forum and has researched and written extensively on issues like fundamentalism, militarization, the state etc. from a feminist perspective.

Yasmin Zaidi is presently studying in the U.S.  She has worked with ROZAN, MUBARIZA, Women’s Action Forum in Pakistan and has been actively involved with issues like gender equality, democracy, human rights and peace.

Shahbano Aliani has an MS from Cornell University, where she minored in Gender Relations.  She worked for about 8 years in New York City, USA, on women’s rights and human rights and was also an immigrant labour organizer.  Back in her native Pakistan, she is with the Thardeep Rural Development Programme, where she is now the senior strategic manager.

Chitra Maunaguru, a feminist scholar and activist has been active as a university teacher and has worked on issues related to ethnic conflict, violence against women and gender.  She is the founder of Surya Women’s Development Centre in Batticoloa and member of the Women and Media Collective.  She writes in Tamil and English. 

DushiYanthini Kanagasabapathipillai is a journalist/photojournalist inSri Lanka. She is the first Tamil woman journalist in Sri Lanka to work for foreign media. She is a blogger as well (www.humanityashore.org). She has extensive years (18) of experience in the field of journalism and thriving to promote ethical journalism. She is currently working for Asia calling (Indonesian Radio) as a correspondent. She trains budding journalists in Sri Lanka and abroad.

Kumudini Samuel is a founder of Women and Media Collective and is presently the South Asia Coordinator of DAWN.  She has played a very active role in the women’s, human rights and peace movement in Sri Lanka, South Asia and globally. 

Sunila Abeysekera is a well-known feminist activist working for almost three decades on issues related to human rights, conflict in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, sexual rights etc. She has worked with INFORM and Women and Media Collective in Sri Lanka;  is a member or several Asian and global networks and is presently the Executive Director of International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific based in Kuala Lumpur.