Feisty Aphrodite Archives
Pakistani Women Mourn Glittering, Imperfect Star
The following is a commentary written by Juliette Terzieff featured on Women's eNews:
Benazir Bhutto led a life that lends itself to legend. She was born into politics, fame and intrigue. Now she has been assassinated on the eve of what most Pakistanis expected to be her triumphant return to power.
She leaves women, in particular, with a profound sense of loss. I admired her, too, but also thought she was the consummate politician more than a real champion for change, especially for women. Not to say the nation is left without female leaders; there are many. But Pakistan is now left without a female leader who can command nationwide and international attention.
In 1988, when Bhutto became the first democratically elected female head of a Muslim country at the age of 35, women's rights campaigners cheered. She appointed the first female high court judge and instituted a women's police force. But the well-spoken modern prime minister wound up besieged by political infighting and resistance from army and religious leaders, then was bounced out of office 20 months later on corruption charges that also swept up her husband. Bhutto returned to power in 1996 for a three-year term.
Then again she disappointed women's rights activists.
As Bhutto planned her October 2007 return to Pakistan she seemed a changed woman, displaying a different view on the roles of the military and extremism in Pakistan, and the damaged they'd caused. Though she spoke little about women's concerns her new outlook raised hopes among women that she would finally be able to rise above the fray and make changes.
While her assassination wasn't completely unexpected, it does seem unfair for a woman and a country that has gone through so much in recent years. Bhutto, whatever her faults, was a powerful symbol in Pakistan, especially for women. Having extensively covered women's issues from domestic abuse to maternal health to political representation during my time there from 2001 to 2004, I knew how hard it can be for Pakistani women to feel hopeful for the future. Bhutto's public displays of strength as a politician, a mother and a wife had always given them an example of what their lives could be.
"Women have long paid the heaviest price for Pakistan's problems," says Lahore-based social worker Humeira Quereshi, who often criticized Bhutto over women's issues. "Women's issues are simply not viewed as a priority and getting action is extremely difficult at the best of times."
As the news broke I e-mailed my editors and picked up the telephone to reach out to sources, in-laws and friends in Pakistan to gauge their reactions and ask them for predictions. The overwhelming welcome Pakistanis displayed for this often skeptical, questioning American reporter won the nation my respect and admiration.
The responses I heard were almost universal from both Bhutto's staunchest supporters and her critics: absolute dismay.
"As a woman this is a loss which cannot be compensated," the prominent activist and Bhutto supporter Shahnaz Bokhari told me in a phone call shortly after the Dec. 27 assassination. "She was our hope for a liberal, democratic Pakistan, our one bright spot in an otherwise suffocating atmosphere of control."
Bokhari, who is well known in Europe and the United States as a firebrand campaigner for women's rights, heads the Islamabad-based advocacy group Progressive Women's Association, which among other things shelters victims of interpersonal violence.
During my time in Pakistan, we regularly discussed the situation for women. But now the usually optimistic and stalwart Bokhari seemed full of despair.
Read the entire story here.
