Experts on countries of origin by country

Syed Mohammad Ali is a lecturer for the MA in Global Security Studies program ay Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Ali has a PhD in development anthropology, and he has extensive experience working with multilateral, bilateral, government, and non-government organizations on varied international development challenges.

Besides teaching, Dr. Ali is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C., and he is a Non-Resident Faculty member affiliated with the Beaconhouse National University in Lahore. He is also the author of several peer-reviewed articles, half a dozen book chapters, as well as the book Development, Poverty and Power in Pakistan: The Impact of State and Donor Interventions on Farmers, published by Routledge in 2015. His other publications include numerous policy papers for leading think-tanks including the United States Institute of Peace and the Middle East Institute. 

Dr. Ali writes a weekly op-ed in the Express Tribune, an affiliate of the New York Times in Pakistan, since 2011. He regularly participates in panel discussions on several Pakistani news channels, as well as on international media outlets including Al Jazeera, China Global Television Network, Channel NewsAsia, Voice of America’s televised Urdu Service programs… Read more

Mr. Bahiss is a senior analyst with International Crisis Group’s Asia Program. He specialises on armed groups, security and governance in Afghanistan, and his work has been published by various international media and research organisations. 

Andrea Chiovenda is an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE. He received his PhD in anthropology from Boston University in 2015. His ethnographic fieldwork research was carried out in Afghanistan from 2009 until 2013, and again in 2016, and focused on the psychological impact of cultural norms of masculinity among Pashtun men. In 2020, Dr. Chiovenda published a book based on this research, entitled Crafting Masculine Selves: Culture, War and Psychodynamics in Afghanistan (Oxford University Press, 2020), which won the 2021 Boyer Prize for contributions to psychoanalytic anthropology, from the Society for Psychological Anthropology. Additionally, he published several articles and book chapters in peer-reviewed academic journals and edited volumes on conflict, violence, and gender relations in Afghanistan. Since 2016, Dr. Chiovenda has been carrying out original ethnographic research in Greece, investigating the psychological impact of the migratory experience among Afghan refugees in the country. 

C. Christine Fair is a Professor in the Security Studies Program within Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She previously served as a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, a political officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul, and a senior research associate at the United States Institute of Peace.  Her most recent book is In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2018/2019).  She has authored, co-authored and co-edited several books, including Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way of War (Oxford University Press); Pakistan’s Enduring Challenges (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), Policing Insurgencies: Cops as Counterinsurgents (Oxford University Press, 2014); Political Islam and Governance in Bangladesh (Routledge, 2010); Treading on Hallowed Ground: Counterinsurgency Operations in Sacred Spaces (Oxford University Press, 2008); The Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan (USIP, 2008), and The Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States (Globe Pequot, 2008), among others.  

She is a member of Women in International Security, International Studies… Read more

The Expert has been studying Afghanistan since 2001 as a UK government political and military analyst and also at the world-acclaimed international think-tank, SIPRI, in Stockholm. He has produced more than 900 Afghanistan Expert Reports for over 150 British and American law firms. He is very responsive to short notice deadlines, has a quick turnaround time and he is very happy to discuss early initial thoughts to assist you and your client at no obligation. He has excellent impartial research, analysis and communication skills and was awarded an MBE for his Afghanistan work in 2005.

Performance feedback – judges:

“I have carefully considered the report of Mr Tim Foxley MBE…I accept that Mr Foxley is an expert. I give weight to his CV. The report complies with the practice direction. He demonstrates a clear understanding of his duties as an expert and his duty to the court…The respondent does not challenge his expertise…The cogent observations of Mr Foxley carry weight. “ 

(First Tier Tribunal Judge, January 2024)

“Mr Tim Foxley is a well established expert witness who has eighteen years’ experience of studying Afghanistan…His report is objectively written and thoroughly sourced.  It is an impressive piece of evidence.  I am not… Read more

Dr. Shaul Gabbay completed a BA at Bar Ilan University and an MA at Tel-Aviv University. In 1991 he received a Presidential Fellowship from the U.S. to continue his studies. In 1995 he completed the PhD program at Columbia University in New York and received an invitation from the University of Chicago for a Post Doctoral program. In 1998 Dr. Gabbay returned to Israel to join the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Professor Gabbay joined the University of Denver as the Director of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies in 2001- 2010.  He continued his research at DU as a Senior Scholar until 2015 when he was appointed Director of the Global Research Institute.

His areas of expertise include Middle East cultures and societal norms,   Middle East conflicts, and human rights issues existing in Muslim societies.  He is regularly cited and acts as a commentator in national and international media such as the Associated Press, CBS, NBC, FOX and MSNBC.

I am an independent expert in country and asylum matters, focusing on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and broader regions of the Middle East and South Asia. I have served as an expert witness since 2018 and bring a solid background in law and advocacy before Pakistan’s High Courts. Using a thorough and impartial approach, along with deep regional and language expertise, I analyse social, cultural, legal, and political issues related to asylum, immigration, and refugee cases throughout these areas.

I hold LLB (Hons) Degree from University of London, MSc Business Operations & Management from Glasgow Caledonian University, and Legal Practice Course Northumbria University Newcastle upon Tyne.

I work as litigation lawyer in Pakistan as Advocate High Courts since 2018. I have worked for numerous clients and represented them in Criminal, Civil, Labour, Commercial, Constitutional, Administrative Law, Public Law, cases in Provincial and Federal Courts.

Dr. Antonio Giustozzi is a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He took his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is the author of several articles and papers on Afghanistan, as well as of seven books, War, politics and society in Afghanistan, 1978-1992 (Georgetown University Press), Koran, Kalashnikov and laptop: the Neo-Taliban insurgency, 2002-7 (Columbia University Press), Empires of mud: war and warlords in Afghanistan (Columbia University Press), Policing Afghanistan (with M. Ishaqzada, Columbia University Press, 2013), The army of Afghanistan (Hurst, 2016), the Islamic State in Khorasan (Hurst, 2018 and II ed 2022) and Taliban at war (OUP USA, 2019 and II ed. 2022). He also authored a volume on the role of coercion and violence in state-building, The Art of Coercion (Columbia University Press, 2011), one on advisory missions (Missionaries of modernity, Hurst, 2016), one on Jihadism in Pakistan (IB Tauris, 2023) and edited a volume on the Taliban, Decoding the New Taliban (Columbia University Press, 2009), featuring contributions by specialists from different backgrounds. He contributes regularly to the media and to periodical publications. In the past he worked among else as a consultant for the EUSR… Read more

Audra Grant works at the intersection of conflict, human rights, and governance in fragile, conflict-affected settings in the Middle East and Africa. As an international development professional and subject matter expert at NORC, her projects addressed diverse issues affecting vulnerable populations, from human rights, illicit trade, extremism, and organized crime to child labor and youth recruitment into violence. Audra has over 20 years of experience as a practitioner, security and policy professional and academic and has worked in nearly every country in the Middle East and North Africa and also in over 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, providing policy and program advice to the USG, private sector, and international donors. She held senior positions at RAND and was a career analyst at the U.S. Department of State / INR. A former assistant professor at University Al-Akhawayn, Ifrane, Morocco, she is a Senior Lecturer at The George Washington University. Audra is also an advisor for the Women’s Ambassador Foundation, Howard University, and reviewer for the Journal of Peace and Development and Contemporary Review of the Middle East. 

Expert Witness, former diplomat, Ph.D. Candidate in law specializing and providing expert report on  human rights, asylum and immigration cases of nationality assessment, gender-based violence with a focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Dr Jawad Hassan Zadeh is an Expert Witness with experience of working in Afghanistan’s and Pakistan’s affairs. As of February 2022, he has prepared 1,128 expert reports for over 200 law firms and non-legal organisations based in France, Greece, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States of America. The Expert provides three services concerning cases from Afghanistan (1) country of origin expert opinions on human rights, culture, ethnic groups, religions, laws, government and non-state actors (2) conducts forensic examination of all types of documents originating from Afghanistan (3) interviews the ‘disputed nationality’ claimants from Afghanistan with a view of producing linguistic and nationality of the disputed clients.

The expert provides country expert reports for Pakistan, conducts nationality assessment interviews for Pakistani nationals whose nationality and origin are disputed and verifies the authenticity of Pakistani documents. 

The Expert is a Country Expert and academic with extensive fieldwork expeirience and providing expert reports (100+) for more than 40 firms in the UK, US, Netherlands, and Canada with areas of expertise such as but not limited to:
- Authentication documents originating from countries of expertise
- Country reports on the indicated countries of expertise
- Minority groups, religious groups
- Political, social and cultural groups: LGBT
- Organized crime and mafia, state crime
- Extremist and violent groups, including religious groups
- Human rights violations
- Women issues: honor killing
- Human trafficking
- Psychiatry and prison conditions
- Disadvantaged groups e.g. children, minorities, mentally ill, disabled, terminally ill
- Availability of medical services
- State structure, military and security services
- Drug dealing and trafficking

My academic and professional qualifications include an undergraduate in Psychology (Academic year: 1997) and a post-graduate degree and training (Academic year: 1997-98 and 1999-2000) in Clinical Psychology. My clinical work is diverse and covers assessment and therapy for adults and minority ethnic groups for various conditions. As a multilingual psychologist with multi-cultural experience, I can assess efficiently and provide culturally emotional sensitive service.

My employment history involves working as a psychologist:

1. In the UK, I have been working in the UK for last 18 years. I used to work with Nafas Drug Treatment Centre (my post was funded by NHS), All Together Project (UK Gov.), PR UK and The UK Centre for Counselling & Psychotherapy, London School of Psychology and Health.

I have also gained international experience by working in India and Bangladesh.

2. In India, with People in Distress (PID). Currently, I am working as a Part time Faculty for Post Graduate Diploma in Health and Hospital Management with International Medical Centre.

3. In Bangladesh, with National Institute of Mental Health, Marie Stopes Clinic, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B) - a worldwide… Read more

Dr Imam brings more than two decades of experience in mixed methods international social science practice, research, and teaching around the world, focusing on East and West Africa, South Asia, USA, and Central Asia. Her interests involve research, development, and instruction on advanced issues of human rights, international conventions on human, civil, and political rights, and against torture; police service, judicial and quasi-judicial institutions, and persecution; grievance redressal arrangements; gender analysis, gender equality, gender-based violence, forced marriages, and sexual abuse; child abuse, child marriages, and violence against children; climate-related issues; and more. She has written books and scholarly articles about public administration, employing quantitative data and qualitative streams of historical changes in socioeconomic, judicial, political, and administrative institutions.

Her work employs innovative research methodologies, focusing on getting to the crux of socio-cultural and institutional situations to deliver efficient solutions that take into account complex dynamics involving human rights, child rights, gender equality, sustainability, and other such standards, in diverse socio-political contexts.

Tariq Jahan is a PhD researcher in International Relations at the University of St Andrews (UK), specializing in conflict, terrorism, and strategic communication in Afghanistan. His research focuses on how state and non-state actors—including the Taliban, the former Afghan government, and international forces—have used narratives, propaganda, and information control during Afghanistan’s post-2001 conflict. His work draws on extensive primary materials, academic research, and qualitative interviews with practitioners, officials, and analysts.

Tariq has professional experience in strategic communications and policy analysis and has worked closely with Afghan and international stakeholders on issues of security, extremism, governance, and civic space. He provides country-of-origin analysis for asylum and refugee cases, offering independent, evidence-based expert opinion on political risk, persecution, and conflict dynamics in Afghanistan. He is fluent in English, Pashto, and Dari, with working knowledge of Urdu. 

Melissa Chiovenda is an assistant professor of anthropology at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi. She has  been conducting research in Afghanistan since 2009. Dr. Chiovenda’s  main research in Afghanistan concerned ethnic Hazara civil society movements and the transmission of cultural trauma. Her earlier research in Afghanistan concerned Pashtun women who were working with Western NGOs. She has a PhD from the University of Connecticut in anthropology, an MA from Georgetown University in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies with a Certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Crises, and a BS in Russian Language and Literature from Georgetown University. Since 2016, She has been conducting research on the political identity of Afghan, mainly Hazara, refugees in Greece and Italy. She has also started projects concerning the Hazara genocide of the late 1800s, and sexual violence historically and currently experienced by Hazara women.

Prior to working in academia, Dr. Chiovenda was a high school teacher in South Los Angeles. She also worked for United States exchange programs in Russia, was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and spent a summer teaching children at an organization in Nablus, West Bank.

The Expert is a practising Advocate and Barrister-at-Law in Pakistan. He is the Senior Partner of Khan & Co Barristers-at-Law and has repeatedly been appointed as an expert on Pakistani law in the UK court system. The Expert is counsel to foreign governments on Pakistani law and is a Registered Foreign Lawyer with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and practices law in the UK and in Pakistan. The Expert has provided more than 200 reports in immigration and family law cases funded by the Legal Aid Agency and the Scottish Legal Aid Board The reports provided by the Expert have addressed issues related to adultery, adoption, blasphemy, custody and abduction of children, divorce (talaq), divorce (khula), forced conversions, forced marriages, gender based violence, gender identity claims, honour killings, human trafficking, internal relocation, jirgas (tribal councils), law reform, legitimacy of children, Pakistani prisons, protection of witnesses, religious minorities and ethnic groups, statelessness, sexual orientation claims, terrorism offences and women’s protection legislation. The Expert is particularly well-versed in the Constitution of Pakistan 1973, judicial review in Pakistani courts, public law issues and national accountability cases. 

In the context… Read more

I am a country-of-origin expert witness for Afghanistan. I prepare expert reports on different issues related to Afghan nationals for asylum, family and criminal cases. 

I also verify the authenticity of documents issued in Afghanistan. I have completed my degree at the King’s College London and am studying for a Diploma in Linguistics. 

Dr Imranali Panjwani has lived, studied and worked in the UK, Middle East, East-Africa and Australia as an academic, lawyer, chaplain and community worker. He has written 200+ country experts reports for asylum seekers under the instructions of UK and international law firms. His reports have been commented upon by judges and lawyers and draw upon his diverse legal, cultural and religious experiences.

For his access to justice work in immigration and asylum he received the national Spirit in the Community award at the GG2 Leadership & Diversity Awards in 2025 and Highly Commended Access to Justice award at the UK Diversity Legal Awards in 2021.