"There is the Christian right in the US, there is Muslim fundamentalism in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and there is Hindu fundamentalism in India," Irene told IANS here in an exclusive interview.

"The space for liberal thought is being squeezed in Bangladesh. The rise of fundamentalism is very dangerous for civil society and for women," Irene added.

Irene, a Bangladeshi national who became the first Asian, the first woman and the first Muslim to head the human rights body in August 2001, was here after a visit to Nepal where she assessed the situation after the royal coup.

Although she was appointed to the job earlier, she took charge of her new assignment as Amnesty chief in London one day after the Sep 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

"By the time I took charge, the world had changed," said Irene, for whom dealing with the post-9/11 world became a baptism by fire.

"It shook us all up. It exposed how vulnerable the human rights situation is in the world. Countries with long tradition of human rights started behaving as though they couldn't care less," said Irene, who led high-level missions to Pakistan during the bombing of Afghanistan in 2001.

"What is most shocking is that ever since McCarthyism - the ideological witch-hunt of communists and communist sympathisers in the US in the 50s -- this was the most virulent kind of ideological battle being fought. Suddenly, every Muslim was a suspected terrorist," recalls Irene, distressed by the adoption of draconian laws by the US to deal with terrorists.

What is needed is an alternative vision to the war on terrorism, Irene stresses, and spells her view: "One doesn't need to wage war. What is needed is a culture of peace and human rights."

A frank and forthright person, Irene is not loath to admit bias and double standards in the practice of human rights. "Selectivity and hypocrisy have been part of the discourse on human rights," asserts Irene.

Irene is pained by the unilateral actions of the US.

"Some powerful nations have made us feel that (human rights) apply in some situations more than in others. Long before 9/11, the US was violating human rights with impunity in Latin America and Southeast Asia."

Calling a spade a spade, she declaims: "Human rights are not Western values; they are human values. The West is violating them as much as the South."

How does it feel like being the first woman and the first Muslim to head a global rights organisation?

"Being a Muslim woman, I am able to raise the issues about the way Muslim women are being treated in Muslim countries more effectively.

"The Shariat (Muslim personal law) is being used to suppress women in many Muslim countries," says Irene, for whom the atrocities and discrimination against the minorities in her country in 1971 was a turning point in her personal life.

"I saw a lot of suffering and cruelty at that time. I was barely 15 then - a very impressionable age. A Hindu girl in my school was killed. That's when I thought I must do for human rights."

The Amnesty chief is confident about the return of democracy in Nepal, which she visited this week.

"I saw an unappeasable hunger for freedom in the Nepalese people. If it's in their minds and hearts, you can't root it out through diktats. Ultimately, people will be shaping the agenda."

At the end of the day, what keeps her ticking is her resolute belief that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

"Human rights are more relevant than before. People's security should be at the heart of human rights strategy, and not governments," says Irene, an alumnus of Harvard Law School.