Shuddhashar FreeVoice is deeply worried about the long-term implications and consequences if Denmark illegalizes the burning of the Qur’an because of outside pressure. While we consider the burning or banning of any book to be abhorrent and anti-democratic, we also strongly support freedom of expression and freedom to critique religious norms, practices, and all political …
UFO testimony are making headlines again. How does belief in UFOs match with science and religious belief? Religious Studies professor examines the evidence.
In this special episode of the Shuddhashar Free-thought podcast, we focus on the theme of our November 2022 issue, Cultural Genocide. Joined by contributors Esther Brito and Henrik Kjellmo Larsen, PhD researchers at the American University School of International Service and Monash University in Australia, respectively, we attempt to deconstruct and walk through the evolution of cultural genocide in the 21st century.
In this episode of the Shuddhashar Free-thought Podcast, Sofia Karim, an architect, campaigner for prisoners of conscience and founder of the Turbine Bagh project, an art movement borne against fascism and authoritarianism in Bangladesh and India. Karim sheds light on the sytematically censored stories of enforced disappearances, incarceration, and the war on information by the …
Authoritarianism: In conversation with Sofia Karim Read More »
In this episode of Shuddhashar Free-thought Podcast, we discuss the history of race relations and prejudice, the role of NGOs in contentious politics, and Europe since the Syrian refugee crises of 2015. Our guest is Henrik Kjellmo Larsen, a PhD researcher on humanitarian volunteers at Monash University.
Publication houses play an vital role in sponsoring and promoting writers and thought-provoking work in a marketplace of ideas. Shuddhashar proposes we recognize this by making 31 October Freedom to Publish Day.
Since its inception, Shuddhashar has remained committed to giving marginalised voices a platform. Over three decades, we have had the privilege of publishing works of writers, poets, and artists who represent communities that live on the margins, who are denied rights by the dominant majority, and whose voices are silenced by governments and mainstream media …
Avijit-Ananta Mentorship Programme for writers (September-December 2022) Read More »
It is with horror and anger that we express our strongest condemnation of the vicious attack on Salman Rushdie in New York. Rushdie has lived most of his life under the threat of assassination. For his novel, The Satanic Verses, the Ayotollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him in 1989, calling for his assassination. Publishers and …
As the stories about horrors in Ukraine grip international headlines, too much attention is focused on troop movement and scenes of military might, but not enough attention is paid to the internally displaced people and the humanitarian situation on the ground. I had seen Ms. Tinatin Japaridze, VP of Business Development for Critical Mass, give …
We are deeply outraged by the Oslo mass shooting, which has left two people dead and many injured. The fact that a bar popular with the LGBT+ community was targeted suggests that it was a hate crime. Local police authorities are treating the incident as an Islamist terrorist attack. This is not the first time …
A Decade Later, Another Deadly Attack on Progressives in Norway Read More »
Between 2013 and 2016, numerous secular writers, religious minorities, and activists in Bangladesh were hacked to death by radical Islamists. This was a deliberate and coordinated onslaught on freethinking and free speech in Bangladesh. That particularly gruesome violent stage seems to have quietened, but the chilling effects persist through censorship and fear and an oppressive …
