Asma Jahangir The Frontline Activist

"The time for dilly-dallying is over, we need to face the issues up front," says Pakistan's foremost human rights activist.

TALK ABOUT HUMAN rights in Pakistan and sooner or later Asma Jahangir´s name crops up—for some very good reasons. An advocate at the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Ms Jahangir has shot to prominence with the frontline positions she has taken on controversial, sometimes life-threatening, issues. She and the organisations she has founded and worked for have taken up causes ranging from the rights of women, children, religious minorities, bonded labourers, and jail inmates, to civil rights and constitutional reform. Over the last decade, Asma Jahangir´s name has become synonymous with progressive thinking and activism for change in the country.

Ms Jahangir´s first steps towards activism began when she co-founded Pakistan´s first all-female law firm, AGHS (for Asma, Gulrukh, Hina and Shahla, the founding members) and its Legal Aid Cell in 1980. She was instrumental in establishing the Punjab Women´s Lawyers Association and was part of the pioneering group that formed the Women´s Action Forum (WAF) in 1981. In 1987, she was among the founders of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), an institution whose credibility and integrity is now acknowledged internationally.

WAF was born in the days of Gen Zia-ul Haq´s martial law, the most oppressive period in Pakistan´s history. Besides clamping down on political activity, and resorting to media censorship and television propaganda, the general foisted "Islamisation" upon the country—a move that has had far-reaching effects on the country´s psyche and laws. Few understood the long-term implications of these moves. Fewer had the courage to dissent.

Perhaps the worst-affected by these changes were women, who suddenly found themselves the focus of unwanted attention. Suddenly, anything concerning women was potentially "obscene" and "un-Islamic". Says Ms Jahangir, "Essentially, women were seriously concerned about the designs of the government. The threat of complete segregation was very real, and the experience of Iran was clear to all of us."

Almost alone, WAF took on the might of the military government. The showdown came on 12 February 1983, when the Punjab Women Lawyers Association, made up of no more than ten members, called a demonstration at Lahore´s central Mall Road. A platoon of policemen was unleashed on the 150-odd women and a sprinkling of men who had gathered there. The protestors were tear-gassed and baton-charged. Some, including Ms Jahangir, were arrested.

"The 12 February procession had a profound effect on the politics of the country," says Ms Jahangir. "For the first time, women publicly exposed the bogey of ´Islamisation´. For long they had been patronised and treated with indulgence, but for the first time here were women making news."

Ms Jahangir believes that the feminist movement in Pakistan emerged through WAF´s initiative, for it unleashed ideas that had been suppressed by social traditions and a male-dominated psyche reinforced by Zia´s regime. With the return of democracy in 1988, WAF is currently re-defining its role. "We need to see women´s rights as human rights, not in isolation," says Ms Jahangir.

The 44-year-old lawyer believes that even though Pakistan´s democracy has failed to reach the people, there are signs of hope as the people are increasingly standing up against injustice. Women, in particular, are gradually stepping forward to fight for their rights—as the hundreds of cases coming before the AGHS Legal Aid Cell testify—whether it is child custody, inheritance, domestic violence, sexual abuse, recovery of dowry, or maintenance.

"Blasphemer"

Besides being a women´s rights advocate, Ms Jahangir is also in the forefront when it comes to human rights in general. She was recently re-elected chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. HRCP was at the centre of an international maelstrom sparked by the death of Iqbal Masih, the "child labour leader". Recalling the episode, Ms Jahangir says, "HRCP presented a fair and impartial report. We refused to play to the gallery or dramatise the issue."

But there were vested interests who tried to cash in on Iqbal´s dead body, Ms Jahangir maintains, with the Western media playing the discreditable exploitative role. A Swedish television journalist, for example, labelled all Pakistani institutions as either corrupt or compromising and alleged that Ms Jahangir herself kept children in bondage. He found he had taken on the wrong person, for Ms Jahangir went to court in Sweden and got a ruling against the journalist.

The last few years have been difficult for the Lahore-based Ms Jahangir, with some sectarian organisations targeting her as a "blasphemer" and issuing fatwas against her, particularly since she defended young Salamat Masih, the 14-year-old Pakistani Christian boy who had been accused of blasphemy. If convicted, he would have been sentenced to death. During the hearings on the case, her car was smashed by a fanatical mob in the Lahore High Court and armed intruders entered the next-door home of her sister, lawyer Hina Jillani, not long afterwards. Since then, both sisters have been provided armed police protection.

"I am a changed person after these experiences," confesses Ms Jahangir, who received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1995. "With all this pressure and tension I have forgotten how to relax. In the last four years, there has not been a single week when I have not been attacked in one way or the other."

While denying allegations that she gets emotionally involved with the problems of clients, Ms Jahangir admits, "I do identify myself with the causes." And causes there are aplenty, particularly concerning women and religious minorities, thanks to the discriminatory laws introduced by Ziaul Haq which remain in the statute books.

Zia's Legacy

"Even eight years after Zia´s death, we are talking about his legacy. It just shows that to undo the dirt piled up in a decade, it may take three times as long," says Ms Jahangir. "Discriminatory and oppressive legislation becomes dormant when social attitudes change." In Pakistan, the change is more visible on the institutional level, with fewer convictions taking place under such laws.

Ms Jahangir is eloquent on the future of party politics in her country: "We need to have a new liberal political party in Pakistan, one that is run on democratic lines. The pervasive feudal structure and mindset can be very humiliating for sincere hard-working party workers. We need more educated people and professionals to enter mainstream politics and mobilise the masses. And I strongly believe that women should aggressively seek a mandate from women voters. The time for dilly-dallying is over, we need to face the issues up front."

Lately, there has been some pressure on Ms Jahangir to assume the mantle of political leadership, but she laughs the suggestion away. "I can come out passionately for a cause that I believe in. But I just don´t have the finesse and deftness of a political leader."