Free to Think speaks with academic, policy analyst and human rights activist Mubashar Hasan. He describes how in Bangladesh certain research topics are off-limits, particularly those that threaten the power of the ruling class, and speaks from first-hand experience — Hasan survived 44 days of “enforced disappearance” in Bangladesh in 2017.

Now based in Sydney, Australia, Hasan describes the ‘mental prison’ Bangladeshi colleagues navigate when trying to balance doing their work with the risks they face daily: “I had to negotiate with myself, ‘Should I be silent? Or should I express myself?’ 

Hasan is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at Oslo University, Norway and an adjunct research fellow at the Humanitarian and Development Initiative at Western Sydney University, Australia. Learn more about Hasan’s work at: mubasharhasan.com