Deepali Gaur Singh

RH Reality Check, Asia

Deepali Gaur Singh is a Bangalore-based (Karnataka, India) academic and media practitioner. She is the author of the book ‘Drugs Production and Trafficking in Afghanistan,’ published by Pentagon Press which focuses on the economy and politics of Afghanistan, in particular, the effects of the narcotics trade on the security and stability of the region as also globally. She has an M.Phil. and Ph.D. on Tajikistan and Afghanistan from the Central Asian Studies Division, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Deepali is also a filmmaker and photographer. She has been actively engaged with developmental organisations in rural Karnataka, Rajasthan, New Delhi and Orissa documenting social change and developing an archive of alternative images in different media on issues ranging from early childcare and primary education, health, environment to the informal sector workforce. She has also made a film on the situation of immigrants in Germany where she studied at the University of Hanover while on a DAAD scholarship in July 2000. As a freelancer she has researched and written extensively on Afghanistan and the new Central Asian Republics. Many of her writings have been published in Indian national dailies like, the Deccan Herald and in Kabul Press, an Afghanistan-based news and current affairs website. She is the recipient of the NTS-Asia post doctoral Research fellowship, 2009-2010. She is a member of the Cluster for Excellence, Karl Jaspers Centre for Transcultural Studies, University of Heidelberg and has been awarded a post doctoral fellowship by the DFG (German Research Foundation) at the cluster between November 2008 to January 2009 and August 2009 to January 2010.

Muslim Leaders Defend Marriage by Choice

In India, women -- viewed as either the husband's or father's property -- cannot make decisions about their own marriages. But a new decision made by Muslim bodies and Islamic scholars says that under Sharia law, a woman cannot be married against her will.

Rural Employment Act Is Mixed for Women

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is one of the most closely watched social initiatives in India. While the scheme has the potential to be effective in the alleviation of unemployment and poverty, it is imperative is to study women's participation in the social auditing of the NREGA.

Reviewing The Year in Indian Women’s Rights

Looking back on the year in Indian women's rights, it's clear that women continue to occupy the role of nurturers and care-providers in every Indian sub-culture, religion or group, robbing them of the ability to nurture and care for themselves. It is time for that to change.

LGBTs in Asia Face Criminalization

Sexuality confronts and challenges cherished notions of culture. And hence sexuality outside marriage is not recognized, sexuality of women is not seen as existing, sexual choices other than of the heterosexual variety are criminalized and transgender people marginalized.

India Lags in Providing Sex Ed

With a opposition to sex education guided by politics of the day and state weighed against the considerable number of lives at risk, it is the politicizing of sex education that is to be seen as "immoral" and not sex education itself.