Dr Ashraf Hoque is a social anthropologist with extensive fieldwork experience in Bangladesh and the UK. An expert on Bangladeshi society and culture, with particular expertise on Bangladeshi politics, human rights (gender and sexuality), religious minorities (Hindus, Christians, Atheists), blasphemy and apostasy, Islamic law, human trafficking, and the British-Bangladeshi community. He has written Expert Reports and provided oral evidence at immigration and asylum tribunals in over 400 cases, covering the following areas:
• The Awami League (including Bangladesh Chhatra League)
• Bangladesh Nationalist Party (including the Jatiotabadi Chhatra Dal)
• Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (including Chhatra Shibir)
• Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh
• Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)
• Ansarullah Bangla Team
• Hizb-ut-Tahrir
• Purbo Banglar Communist Party
• Persecution of Hindu and Christian minorities
• Persecution of Biharis
• Persecution of atheists, Humanists, and apostates
• Persecution of bloggers and journalists
• Gender relations (patriarchy, domestic violence, honour killings)
• Status of LGBTQI communities
• Human trafficking (labourers, women, children)
• Land disputes
• Mental illness
• Healthcare
• Blood feuds
• Islamic law and parallel legal systems
• The panchaiyat system
• Document verification
This expert has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in peri-urban, urban, and rural settings in Bangladesh as well as with Bangladeshi diaspora communities in the UK (Tower Hamlets and Luton). Dr Hoque's research in Bangladesh focuses on local politics, working closely with representatives of the major political parties, assessing political participation and transnational migratory links to the UK and the Gulf states. In the UK, research has focused on Muslim youth masculinities, transnational religion and politics, and Bangladeshi political exiles.
Expert has written over 400 expert reports on Bangladeshi state and society, primarily in immigration and asylum cases. He has also provided country expertise to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), the British High Commission in Bangladesh, and the UK Cabinet Office.
Specifically, the expert provides analysis on the political situation in Bangladesh; political parties, their operatives, and supporters; access to healthcare; societal attitudes to mental health; land disputes; gender discrimination; human trafficking; societal attitudes to homosexuality; the treatment of religious minorities; and blasphemy and apostasy. He also provides document verification for Bangladeshi court documents.
Academic Publications
Books:
(2019) Being Young, Male, and Muslim in Luton. London: UCL Press.
(2019) Mafia Raj: the Rule of Bosses in South Asia. Co-author with L. Michelutti, N. Martin, D. Picherit, P. Rollier, A. Ruud & C. Still. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Journal articles and book chapters:
(2023) ‘Politics, position and personality in ethnographic research: a conversation and a response’ in C. Cameron, A. Koslowski, and A. Lamont (eds.) Social Research for our Times. London: UCL Press.
(2020) ‘Land, development and the political class in a translocal ‘Londoni’ village’. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 54(2): 215-235.
(2018) with L. Michelutti. ‘Brushing with Organised Crime and Democracy: the art of “making do” in South Asia’. Journal of Asian Studies, 77(4): 991-1011.
(2015) ‘Muslim men in Luton, UK: Eat First, Talk Later’. South Asia Research. Vol. 35(1): 1-22.
(2015) ‘Does the law work in a village like Gulapbari?: An anthropological insight’. The University of Asia Pacific Journal of Law and Policy. Vol. 1, Issue 1 (June, 2015.)
(2011) ‘Challenges in Religious Accommodation in Family Law, Labour Law, and Legal Regulation of Public Space and Public Funding’. Report published by the European Commission.
Blogs and short articles:
(2023) ‘The historic struggle for housing by Bengali migrants in London’. Himal Southasain. https://www.himalmag.com/bengali-migrants-sylhet-bangladesh-east-end-lo…
(2019) Striving to be better in Britain. Anthropology of This Century. Issue 24, Jan 2019.
(2015) ‘Bangladesh blogger killings have roots in the independence struggle’. The Conversation, 13 May.
(2014) ‘Britain’s Banglatown’. Himal Southasian, Vol. 27, No. 4: 24-37.