[Reader-list] Gita Sahgal quits Amnesty International

[Pawan Durani]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World-Indians-Abroad/Gita-Sahgal-quits-Amnesty-International-/articleshow/5797281.cms?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

LONDON: Gita Sahgal, a senior Indian-origin official at Amnesty
International, under suspension for complaining that the human rights
body was too closely linked to a pro-jihadi group, has quit her job,
saying her 7-years campaigning for women's rights had been a waste of
time.

Sahgal claimed the Amnesty's links with Moazzam Begg, a former inmate
at Guantanamo Bay, and his organisation Cageprisoners were undermining
its campaigns.

She was suspended as the interim head of Amnesty's gender unit in
February after the e-mail she sent to her bosses criticising the links
with Begg was made public.

53-year-old Sahgal said that she felt that her seven years'
campaigning for women's rights had been a waste of time due to the
charity's continuing work with the former prison-camp detainee and his
group.

"Their continued link to Moazzam Begg and Cageprisoners undermines
Amnesty's claims to stand against gender-based violence and religious
discrimination," she said.

"He supports Islamic states where women are second-class citizens," she said.

Cageprisoners, a pressure group, has defended some jihadi Muslim
prisoners, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of
the 9/11 attacks.

42-year-old Begg is part of an Amnesty-hosted tour that is urging
countries to offer a haven to former Guantanamo detainees.