Associate Professor of Practice,
Social Development and Policy
Social Development and Policy
School of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
Education
- Northeastern University School of Law, Boston, MA, Juris Doctor, 1999
- Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, 1994
Admission to Practice Law
- California, United States, Member of Bar, 2006 to present
- Massachusetts, United States, Member of Bar, 1999 to present
- U.S. District Court, Massachusetts, United States, February 2003 to present
- Court of Appeals, First Circuit, United States, May 2000 to present
- Pakistan, Sindh High Court and Lower Courts, Nov 2007 to present
Research Interests
- Law and advocacy
- Social justice and forced conversions
- Feminist critical legal and decolonial theory
- Economy justice in neo-liberal economies
- Climate justice, land, and ecology
Biography
Abira Ashfaq is a multi-talented legal educator with an extensive academic and professional background in human rights work in housing, migration, and climate justice. Abira’s research is based on her practice and focuses on social justice. Her present interest is using legal systems to enhance people’s economic, cultural, and social rights and building knowledge and scholarship around these issues.
Her work and research in the last five years include:
- Strategic litigation around housing rights and against forced evictions of communities in Karachi and for preservation of Malir’s ecosystem especially Kirthar National Park
- Advocacy before UN organizations, local courts, and public development banks accountability mechanisms
- Feminist participatory research in collaboration with the APWLD and home-based worker unions in Hyderabad to document their work and struggles
- Collaboration with the University of Sussex on research on forced conversions in Sindh
- Research on land and natural resource rights with international human rights donors
- Legal advocacy with Roshni Helpline on the rights of children including work on the ZARRA law of 2020 to recover missing children
- Legal advocacy in collaboration with the International Committee for the Red Cross to get the GoS to pass ambulance right of way laws
She taught International Human Rights and Feminist Legal Theory at IBA between 2019 and 2024. She also taught Criminal Law and Jurisprudence at SZABIST between 2007 and 2018. Between 1999 and 2004, she worked as a lawyer in the US where she represented noncitizens in detention, and for two of these years, she was a clinical instructor at the Boston College School of Law.
Publications
Books
- Chapter/book on ideology and forced conversions with the Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development (CREID), IDS, Sussex (forthcoming)
- The Gendered Impacts of Climate Change in Karachi in Yasmeen Lari, Architecture for the Future, Edited by Angelika Fitz, Elke Krasny, Marvi Mazhar, and Architekturzentrum Wien, MIT Press, 2023
- Invisible Removal, Endless Detention, Limited Relief: A Taste of Immigration Court Representation for Detained Non-Citizens in Keeping Out the Other (Anthology), Columbia University Press, 2008
Journals, Magazines & News
- Traumas of Displacement, The Wayward, September 15, 2023
- Land Dispossession and Forced Evictions in an Era of Climate Vulnerability: The Case of Malir and Karachi Nullah, KUL, December 2024, Read more
- Housing Rights: An Essential Component of Climate Justice, Decolonising Geography, October 16, 2022 (co-author)
- Pakistan in the Aftermath of Floods, Economic and Political Weekly, December 17, 2022
- Defending Childhood in Pakistan: An Overview of Laws Protecting Children, Journal of Diversity and Inclusion, November 2021
- Understanding Urban Resilience, Migration, Displacement & Violence in Karachi, International Committee for the Red Cross, June 2020
- Sexual Harassment, Dawn, June 8, 2019, Read more
- Pakistani Law for Women, A Friend or a Foe, Herald, January 2019 (book review)
- Hidden Labour, Dawn, January 13, 2019, Read more
- The Problem with NGOs, The News, June 25, 2017, Read more
- Sound Bytes: ‘Longer jail terms can’t solve honour murders problem’, Dawn, October 10, 2016
Articles for The Express Tribune Newspaper:
- In a country of abysmal women rights, will the Transgender Protection Act prove to be fruitful?, May 17, 2018
- Public Execution Only Kills the Rapist, not the Problem, February 21, 2018
- Five Legal Milestones from 2015 that Pakistan Should Take Pride in, December 31, 2015, Read more
Articles for Dawn Newspaper:
- Shahzeb Khan’s Murder was Shocking but was it Terrorism?, January 10, 2018
- Orange Line Metro: Will the Supreme Court save Lahore’s heritage?, October 13, 2016, Read more
