People struggle, people bring change ─ Jahangir

Excerpt, editing, re-reporting by Carolyn Bennett

In awarding the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Freedom Medal to Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist Asma Jahangir, the citation said Asma Jahangir understood early in life the requirements and sacrifices associated with a commitment to human rights. She understood that a flourishing democracy requires nourished and free civil society institutions. These convictions inspired her public career and, despite intimidation, arrest and imprisonment, and threats to her life, she “never compromised her commitment.” She saw injustice first-hand and took up the study and practice of law, a profession in 1970s Pakistan deemed unsuitable for women. Asma Jahangir co-founded the first all-woman law practice and the first free legal-aid center in Pakistan; then challenged ordinances making blasphemy a capital offense.

Women together uproot entrenched bigotry

“I firmly believe that women across the world, regardless of their positions in life or cultural backgrounds, have much in common,” Asma Jahangir said in accepting the award. “My clients often express Eleanor’s [Eleanor Roosevelt’s] admission to a friend that she could ‘forgive but not forget.’ However, several women can do neither. Dependency and an all-pervasive male environment force them to accept ill-treatment as their fate. This must change.

“The worst threats and attacks made on me were during two cases that I defended. One of a fourteen-year-old, Salamat Masih, who was accused of blasphemy which carries a mandatory death penalty in our country; the second of a 22-year-old woman who had defied her family and married a man of her choice. Fortunately, both cases were won but at a huge price.

“The litigants could no longer live in the country. The presiding judge who acquitted Salamat was killed. I escaped two assassination attempts. Such challenges are instructive. I have never regretted defending the vulnerable. They often put us to shame. Their courage and patience is exemplary.

“Religious intolerance knows no borders. It is contagious and rears its head in almost all regions of the world.”

Democracy, rule of law, human rights interwoven

“Rights of religious minorities are compromised, even in a system where democratic norms are otherwise respected. However, dictatorial and autocratic systems provide a fertile ground for intolerance to entrench itself deeper into society. It is therefore important for us to recognize that democracy, rule of law and human rights are closely interlinked. They flourish together or perish one by one.

“In my early years of activism, I was dubbed as a controversial person. This is the initial step of marginalizing an activist for human rights. People like myself are then considered dangerous and a threat to moral, and traditional values. Harassment, arrests, and eventually physical attacks follow vilification. A number of human rights defenders go through these hurdles. My life was no different.”

However, in an interview with Radio Netherlands’ South Asia Wired program, she said, “‘we don’t have the luxury of fear, we have to act.’”

“‘The West is only learning now, but extremism took over Pakistan [30 years ago]’ … The attacks of 9/11 in New York just highlighted the ‘sleepiness’ of the Western intelligence and diplomatic communities to something that ‘every Pakistani on the street had been talking about for years.…’”

People bring change

In a 1990s interview, Asma Jahangir spoke of progressive change rising, not from governments, but from the people. “‘Eventually things will have to get better. However, the way they will improve is not going to be because of government, elite or 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.’”


Sources
Asma Jahangir’s Acceptance speech at The International Four Freedoms Awards 2010, Middelburg, The Netherlands, May 29, 2010, http://fourfreedoms.nl/index.php?lang=en&id=58
http://www.fourfreedoms.nl/index.php?lang=en&id=57
“Asma Jahangir” (Laila Kazmi, Interview by Farahnaz Junejo, Zameen, December 1997), http://www.jazbah.org/asmaj.php
“An Outspoken Woman” (South Asia Wired, South Asians talking to each other, Dheera Sujan’s interview with Asma Jahangir), June 3, 2010, http://blogs.rnw.nl/southasiawired/2010/06/03/an-outspoken-woman/