sponsored by the
South Asia Solidarity Initiative
10 years after the attacks against Muslims in Gujarat, India, in which 2000 Muslims were killed and more than 100,000 displaced, the victims of the attacks continue to seek justice. Please join the South Asia Solidarity Initiative for a panel discussion with Arastu Zakia, a youth activist from Ahmedabad and Smita Narula, Faculty Director, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, New York University.
The panel will be moderated by Rupal Oza, Associate Professor of Geography, Hunter College.
Date: April 5, Thursday
Time: 6:30-8:30pm
Place: Alwan for the Arts, 16 Beaver St., 4th Floor (bet. Broad & Broadway)
(click here
Speaker bios:
Arastu Zakia is 24 years old and was forced to leave his home in Paldi, Ahmedabad when the riots began. His mother, Zakia Soman, went on to become the well known activist for Action Aid and the founder of the largest Muslim women's collective, the Bhartiya Muslim Mela Andolan. Arastu founded his own NGO at just 19 and today leads groups of
Ahmedabad youth--Hindus and Muslims--on issues of combating communalism, sexism,
homophobia, patriarchy, and fundamentalism.
Smita Narula is currently Faculty Director, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University. Before joining NYU in August 2003, Smita Narula spent six years at Human Rights Watch, first as the organization’s India researcher and later as Senior Researcher for South Asia. In this capacity, she oversaw Human Rights Watch’s work on India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, and helped coordinate the
organization’s response to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. In 2000 Narula
co-founded the International Dalit Solidarity Network, which brings
together international organizations, donor agencies, and non-governmental
groups to build a world-wide movement against caste discrimination in Asia
and Africa.
Rupal Oza the Director of the Women and Gender Studies program at Hunter College, CUNY. Her book, *The Making of Neoliberal India: Nationalism, Gender, and the Paradoxes of Globalization* was published by Routledge, New York and from Women Unlimited, India. She has several articles in peer reviewed journals. Her current project is on examining the link between special economic zones and the discourse of security in India.
