Professor Ahmed teaches reproductive and sexual health and rights, international health law, and property. Her research areas include health and law (international and domestic), human rights, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. She approaches her research from a range of critical perspectives. Professor Ahmed's scholarship is interdisciplinary, and often draws from both public health and law methodologies and literature. Alongside her work on public health, Professor Ahmed also writes about the changing global landscape of Muslim minorities after 9/11. Professor Ahmed holds a law degree from the University of California Berkeley, a master′s of science in population and international health from the Harvard School of Public Health, and a BA from Emory University. Prior to joining the Northeastern faculty, Professor Ahmed was a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health Program on International Health and Human Rights. She came to that position after a Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship with the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW). At ICW, Professor Ahmed engaged in numerous human rights projects pertaining to HIV and AIDS. Professor Ahmed has worked on human rights and social justice issues in South Africa, Namibia, the Caribbean, India and the United States. She has worked with and for various United Nations agencies, international and domestic non-governmental organizations. Professor Ahmed is currently a member of the Technical Advisory Group on HIV and the Law convened by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She has also served as an expert for the American Bar Association. Professor Ahmed continues to support the work of many civil society organizations domestically and internationally.
Articles
'We Have the Right Not to be "Rescued"…': When Anti-Trafficking Programmes Undermine the Health and Well-being of Sex Workers (peer-reviewed) (with Meena Seshu), Anti-Trafficking Review (2012)
“At the hospital there are no human rights”: reproductive and sexual rights violations of women living with HIV in Namibia (with Mindy J. Roseman and Jennifer Gatsi-Mallet), School of Law Faculty Publications (2012)
This report documents the ongoing stigma and discrimination of women living with HIV in Namibia,...
No Way Out: The Dual Subordination of Muslim Women in Indian Legal Culture, Self-Determination and Women's Rights in Muslim Societies (Book-Peer Reviewed) (2012)
Criminalising consensual sexual behaviour in the context of HIV: Consequences, evidence, and leadership (peer-reviewed) (with Margo Kaplan, Alison Symington, and Eszter Kismodi), Global Public Health (2011)
This paper provides an overview of the use of the criminal law to regulate sexual...
Posters
Fostering an Enabling Legal and Policy Environment for the Effective Prevention, Care and Treatment of Sexually-Transmitted HIV. (with Eszter Kismodi, Margo Kaplan, and Ann Warner) (2010)
Increase in Punitive Public Health and Safety Laws Harm HIV-Positive Women and Communities in the United States: Current Trends in the U.S. and a global perspective on Best Practices. (with Brook Kelly, Naina Khanna, Beri Hull, and Vanessa Johnson) (2010)
Using Human Rights to Improve Legal and Regulatory Frameworks for HIV/AIDS. (with Sofia Gruskin, Eszter Kismodi, and Jane Cottingham) (2010)
Criminalization of HIV Positive Women (with Alice Welbourn, Beri Hull, and Ebony Johnson) (2008)
Popular Press
The unintended consequences of Nick Kristof's anti-sex trafficking crusade, The Guardian (2012)
Abortion and HIV at the AIDS Conference, Sexuality Policy Watch (2010)
The International AIDS Conference in 2010 held one of the first plenary sessions dedicated to...
Rights and Desires: A Facilitator's Guide to Healthy Sexuality (with Sunita Menon), Breakthrough (2006)
Curriculum on sexuality (India)