Asma Jilani Jehangir

Asma Jilani Jehangir
Chairperson
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
"Eventually things will have to get better. However, the way they will improve is not going to be because of the government or the elite leadership, or the political leadership, or the institutions of our country, most of which have actually crumbled. It will be the people of the country themselves who will bring about the change in society because they have had to struggle to fend for themselves at every level."(Asma Jahangir)Asma Jilani Jahangir, a lawyer and a very vibrant human rights activist, was born in 1952 in Lahore. She did her LLB from Punjab University, and her BA from Kinnaid College, Lahore. She also holds an honorary Doctorate from the University of Saint Gallen in Switzerland.A brave young lady she is, for sure. ASMA JAHANGIR WAS JUST 20 - and not even a lawyer yet - when she launched her first legal battle in Pakistan. Her father, a distinguished member of the ruling elite and a legislator in the National Assembly, had been detained by Benazir Bhutto's father, then president of Pakistan. Nobody dared represent Asma's father, except her own very self. She filed a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court challenging his arrest, and questioning whether the Bhutto government had come to power legally. That was in 1972; in a landmark judgment ten years later she won her case.Asma was born in a prosperous family with a history of activism. Her father, Malik Jilani, was a colonel in the Pakistan Army, entered politics upon retirement and spent time in jail and under house arrest for opposing military dictatorships, Asma herself became involved at a young age in protests against the military regime in Pakistan. She completed her law degree in 1978.She has been the United Nations Special Reporter on Freedom of Religion or Belief since 2004 (first attached to the former Commission on Human Rights, now to the Human Rights Council). Previously, she served as the UN Special Reporter on Extrajudicial, Arbitrary and Summary Executions. She is also an elected member at ‘International Commission of Jurists’ since 1998.She has spent most of her career defending the rights of women, religious minorities, and children of Pakistan. Aided in her mission by fellow activists and colleagues from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, she has continued her battle for justice amidst constant threats to her safety. Her willingness to relentlessly defend victims of rape, women seeking divorce from abusive husbands, people accused of blasphemy, her work on the issues of child labor, and her continuous criticism of political parties has made her one of the most controversial figures in Pakistan.She cut her teeth during protests against the Hudood Ordinance put in place as part of Gen. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization program in Pakistan. She is one of the founding members of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and has served as Secretary-General and later on as the Chairperson of the organization.In 1980, soon after her LLB, Asma Jahangir and her sister, Hina Jilani, got together with few fellow activists and lawyers and formed the first law firm established by women in Pakistan - AGHS (Law firm) Legal Aid Cell. They also helped form the Women's Action Forum (WAF) in the same year. The first WAF demonstration was in 1983 when some 25-50 women took to the streets protesting the famous Safia Bibi case. Safia, a young blind girl, had been raped yet had ended up in jail on the charge of zina.In 1995, Jahangir received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders and the Ramon Magsaysay Award. She was also awarded the Bernard Simons Memorial Award of the International Bar Association in 2000.In 1995, Asma Jahangir received numerous death threats for her defense of Salamat Masih, a fourteen-year old Christian boy sentenced to death for allegedly writing blasphemous words against Islam on the wall of a mosque. In 1999, Asma and her sister, Hina Jilani, a fellow lawyer and activist, were again subject to death threats after representing Samia Sawar, a 32-year old woman who was seeking divorce from her abusive husband. Samia had turned to her family for help but they had refused to help her attain a divorce. When Samia continued to seek a divorce, Samia's family had her murdered in broad daylight in the very law offices of Asma and Hina. Apparently, the family believed that Samia's actions were dishonorable to the family.In her article for Dawn, published October 2, 2000, titled "Whither are We!” Asma demanded that the government of General Musharraf work to improve the record of human rights domestically. Citing examples of human rights abuses, she wrote, "A Hindu income tax inspector gets lynched in the presence of the army personnel for allegedly having made a remark on the beard of a trader. Promptly, the unfortunate Hindu government servant is booked for having committed blasphemy, while the traders and the Lashkar-e-Tayaba activists were offered tea over parleys. A seventy-year-old Mukhtaran Bibi and her pregnant daughter Samina are languishing in Sheikhupura jail on trumped-up charges of blasphemy."In her capacity as a UN official, Asma Jahangir was in Pakistan when a state of emergency was declared by President Pervez Musharraf. On November 5, 2007, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour indicated that Asma Jahangir was among the judicial and political officials detained by the Musharraf Government.On November 5, 2007, The Economist reported that: "Over 500 lawyers, opposition politicians and human rights activists have been arrested. They include Asma Jahangir, head of the country’s human-rights commission and a former UN special reporter. In an e-mail from house arrest, where she has been placed for 90 days, Asma Jahangir regretted that General Musharraf had “lost his marbles”.Asma Jahangir has built a reputation as a courageous defender of the rights of the poor. During the 1980's she refused two invitations from the then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to occupy a woman's seat in the National Assembly and to become the first woman judge of Pakistan's High Court.She is a mother of two daughters and a son. Sulema Jahangir, her daughter, is a lawyer as well.Asma Jahangir has always been leading from the front. Her contributions for the uplift and emancipation of the women folk are commendable.