Freelance Legal Translator and Activist
United Kingdom
[email protected]
I am a freelance legal translator with undergraduate degrees in modern languages (Arabic and French) and law and a postgraduate degree in translation. I have worked for international governmental and nongovernmental organizations as a translator. I have taught MA Translation Studies at a British university as a visiting lecturer.
I am also a grassroots human rights activist with a particular focus on arbitrary detention (particularly at Guantánamo Bay), fair trials, refugee rights and social justice. As a linguist, I am interested in the intersection of these issues and language rights, particularly as in practice the latter are often obscured and used to undermine other human rights.
I am also closely following the move towards the privatization of public sector interpreting and translation services in the United Kingdom and across Europe and how this undermines human rights, particularly the right to a fair trial.
Selected Relevant Publications
- “Behind a Wall of Silence: Interpreters and Detainee Vulnerability in Britain’s Immigration Detention Estate.” FITISPos International Journal: Public Service Interpreting and Translation, Vol 6, No 1 (2019).
- “The Language Barrier: Is The Trump Administration Building a Language Wall to Further Thwart Migrant Rights?” one small window…, Aug. 13, 2019.
- “Can You Hear Us? Interpreters and Detainee Welfare in Immigration Removal Centres.” one small window…, Sept. 23, 2018.
- “Failed by Words: Aisha Maniar Examines the UK Government’s Policy of Carrying Out Language Analysis Tests on Undocumented Asylum Claimants.” Institute of Race Relations, March 23, 2017.
- “Still Privatised, Still Undervalued: New Court Interpreting Contract from 31 October.” Institute of Race Relations, Nov. 10, 2016.
- “(Language) Policing at Europe’s Borders.” Institute of Race Relations, June 23, 2016.
- “Should Britain Offer Asylum to Afghan Interpreters Who Served Its Forces?” Open Democracy, Nov. 13,2013.
More Information
- Aisha Maniar blog, one small window … on the world: a view on human rights.
- Follow Maniar on Twitter.