While an #AIsummit is on in India, I write @ecprtheloop.bsky.social how Hindutva actors --affiliated with the #RSS- the ideological parent body of the ruling BJP -- are using AI-generated porn to target #Muslimwomen, and degrade the entire community of 200 million. theloop.ecpr.eu/hindu-nation...

🌈 #GenderingDemocracy No.34 💻️ Followers of the Hindu nationalist #Hindutva movement are using AI-generated pornographic images to degrade Indian Muslim women. Their tactics, argues @sonias26.bsky.social, serve the movement’s wider drive to humiliate India’s Muslim community. 👉 bit.ly/4riRtbR

The Maldives, the South Asian island nation of 515,132 people, recently passed a new law to tighten the noose of the media. But this new law also indirectly strengthens the state’s restriction on religious freedom. My latest religionunplugged.com/news/law-exp...

Diplomatic ties with Taliban,responsible for gender,ethnic & religious apartheid,would undermine India’s professed pluralism.Recognising it as Afghanistan's legitimate representative would normalise atrocities against women/minorities.I write @ecprtheloop.bsky.social theloop.ecpr.eu/india-has-a-...

✂️ 4 years after cutting ties with #Afghanistan, the Indian government’s strategy towards the #Taliban is changing. 📉 @sonias26.bsky.social argues #India's deteriorating relationship with #Pakistan prompted this change + that India’s pluralist reputation is now at risk. 👉 bit.ly/3XzSy1N

I am just so thrilled to win this award -- this is not just an award for a piece of journalism but recognition of the violence against women in the name of "culture" --which is FGM. And this is happening at people's homes and in cosmetics clinics in different cities across the UK!

In Laos, the tiny Communist country tucked between Thailand and Vietnam, Christians have been facing religious persecution. Despite guaranteeing religious freedom on paper, the Communist authorities heavily monitor the religious activities of Christians. religionunplugged.com/news/christi...

✏️ BEST FEATURE Congratulations to the writers of our shortlisted pieces: Sonia Sarkar, Alannah Francis, Alia Waheed, @shantidas.bsky.social, Anna Moore, @lucymorgan.bsky.social and @sharandhaliwal.bsky.social

My piece: India's reckless blood transfusion system is exposed once again as five thalassemic children contracted HIV through blood transfusion. www.bmj.com/content/391/...

My latest: As protests against the authoritarian regime of President Aleksandar Vučić entered the tenth month this September, ordinary Serbians express their discontent towards Serbian Orthodox Church for not showing enough support towards them. religionunplugged.com/news/serbian...

I write: As Bangladesh grapples with political instability for a year since Hasina was forced to flee the country following mass student-led protests in 2024, Islamist radicals have been trying to make a comeback in this South Asian nation of 173 million people. religionunplugged.com/news/islamis...

How Trump's think tank allies are exporting illiberalism https://asia.nikkei.com/opinion/how-trump-s-think-tank-allies-are-exporting-illiberalism

My piece @asia.nikkei.com on how American think-tanks linked with Trump administration have been mobilizing the far-right globally through conferences --from France and Hungary in Europe to India and Japan in Asia. #farright #ThinkTanks #CPAC #NAtcon

August 15 2021 is one such date that I will remember as long as my brain continues to retain my personal experiences. This was the day when Taliban took over #Kabul. Replugging my piece that I wrote from Kabul after the fall for SCMP #Afghanistan soniasarkar26.wordpress.com/2021/08/17/a...

My piece: UNICRI-Vox Pol report stated the growing online dominance of the “right-wing violent extremist form of Hindutva ideology”. Hindu extremists have been pushing the global Hindutva project & learning new strategies from extremist counterparts elsewhere. www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/on-c...

The homegrown far-right in Singapore,Japan,India & China’s autonomous Mongolian region is identifying with white supremacy, getting inspired by the ideology & forming transnational alliance with their white counterparts in the west. I write @gnetresearch.bsky.social gnet-research.org/2025/08/01/t...

Earlier this year, a #Singaporean was detained for planning a violent attack on minorities after being radicalised by Western, #FarRight extremist ideologies. @sonias26.bsky.social explores how these violent ideologies have been influencing homegrown radicalisation in the East.

India's latest Operation Sindoor was laden with patriarchal symbolism – and that the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP failed to conceal its anti-Muslim sentiment, even at a time of national crisis. My piece for @ecprtheloop.bsky.social theloop.ecpr.eu/the-patriarc...

🪖 In May, #India launched a military assault against #Pakistan to avenge the terrorist killings of Hindu men. 🗣️ @sonias26.bsky.social argues that this was laden with patriarchal #Symbolism & that the ruling #BJP failed to conceal its anti-Muslim sentiment. #Modi 👉 ow.ly/2XFV50WiRbm

Who is creating unrest in Nepal?Why are India's Hindu nationalists wanting to restore monarchy and Hindu statehood in Nepal?Why are posters of Hindu nationalist leader Adityanath seen in a pro-monarchist rally in Kathmandu? My analysis: www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/a-sa... #Nepal #India #Hindutva

Why Muslims In War-Torn Kosovo Are Turning To Catholicism? Why are Kosovo’s politicians not quite rattled by this? Kosovo has been long seeking membership into the European Union, selling itself to the world as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious place. My piece: religionunplugged.com/news/why-are...