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Fearless women: Sherry Rehman, Shehrbano Taseer feature on world women list
Both women featured for braving death threats while continuing their work against blasphemy law.
Sherry Rehman (R) and Shehrbano Taseer (L) feature in Newsweek's list of 150 fearless women.
Pakistan Ambassador to the US, Sherry Rehman and daughter of slain Punjab governor Shehrbano Taseer, have featured on The Daily Beast (Newsweek) list of 150 fearless women.
The list, which does not offer any ranking, lists the likes of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatre, Saudi women rights activist Manal al-Sharif, Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman, and Oprah Winfrey.
About Rehman, The Daily Beast wrote that she had “spent her entire career pushing for human rights and free speech in of the world’s most conservative countries.” It added that while she worked with slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to author bills tackling honour killings and domestic violence. Her claim to the list – according to the Daily Beast, she braved death threats for trying to remove the death penalty in the controversial blasphemy law, even forced into a self-imposed house arrest.
On Shehrbano Taseer, the Beast wrote that she had picked up the battle standard for a progressive and secular Pakistan after the murder of her father and Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer. She too, the Beast added, had been braving death threats, forging ahead unnerved with her mission to “eliminate the country’s strict blasphemy law, which are often invoked to execute religious minorities.”
The list featured 52 women from the United States including Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the US Army’s Female Engagement Team.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords had been killed. This is incorrect. She received a bullet wound in the head, but has now recovered. The error is regretted.
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Reader Comments (46)
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Pakistan has a history of producing great brave women.
1) Fatima Jinnah
2) Mohtarma Shaheed Benazir Bhutto
3) Nusrat Bhutto
4) Shiri Rehman
5) Sherbano Taseer
6) Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
7) Mukhtaran Mai
All brave women who have stood upto injustice & highlighted it.
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Excellent.these women are the real qaum ki betis.they’ve stood tall bravely in the face of the most vile hatred being directed towards them by the religious fanatics.Pakistan is proud to have such brilliant and courageous women as its citizens.We are lucky to have such women in our society.
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So tribune will glorify those people who are against blasphemy law. Huh ? Keep it up tribune this is exactly want we expect from you.
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Veena Malik!
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@sick of this nonsense
Please add Fatima Bhutto to the list. :)Recommend
@sick of this nonsense:
mukhtaran Mai?? really r u serious, this women staged a fake rape drama to get sympathy and money from NGO’s, she made fun of us in the whole world and even succeed in deceiving the nation and world for her personal interests, u should have read the SC verdict before commenting
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@anyone: Correct! Veena malik should be in that list. It’s easy to dismiss her as some bimbo but bimbos don’t put their lives at risk like she does and it’s not just for showing skin too. She is very brave.
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And list goes on!
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Inspite of everything these women are staying in the country although they can flee at a moment’s notice….but they are staying back and fighting. Thumbs-up!
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@Farah Shadat: First of all, the tribune did not come up with the list. The way you say it, you almost make the blasphemy law sound benign and these woman as some sort of demons against a holy law.
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sherry’s name is “shehrbano” too, right? hmm
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@Ameer:
Fatima bhutto & Bilquees Edhi I forgot to add.
@Farah Shadat
Nobody is against blasphemy law. We are against its misuse that has become very common. In a civilized world people can discuss these laws without the fear of being killed that’s what we are doing here.
@Any one
Veena Malik might be brave but for her personal gains not for the nation. Please dont add her into the list of these illustrious ladies, no disrespect intended to veena malik.
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woman who are surviving everyday with almost no resources at their hands…
woman who are being used and abused by men everyday…
they are the fearless women of our country.
Not those who have taken note and exploited resources.
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ET, Gabriel Giffords is not “slain”. She is alive and recovering fast. Please correct this mistake and spend some money on proof readers.
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Yea who ever fights for the agenda of Western backed Secularism efforts is highlighted as heroes. Are these women some sort of religious scholars who say that blasphemy law is against Islam?
And since when did they start caring so much about Islam? They care so much about Islam that they fight for secularism and keep quiet when Afia Siddiqui gets abducted illegally and then gets sentenced to 86years in prison without getting convicted for terrorism?Where are these women when Muslims were slaughtered in Gujarat in India? Why aren’t those women celebrated as heroes who fight and speak against Israeli atrocities in Palestine? It’s all a farce. Nobody who has raised a voice against Western oppression and drone strikes in Waziristan is in that list. Why don’t these women do that if they truly are fearless? Why don’t they raise their voices against that?
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@Farah Shadat: So glad that you agree that the blasphemy law is offensive and should be stricken from the nation’s statutes.
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congresswoman Gabriel Giffords, was not “slain”,as a matter of fact survived an assassination attempt on her.
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Vienna,March 5,2012
As I keep watching for my TTTMM,I may be permitted to add
the thedailybeast/NEWSWEEK are holding later this week their
three day annual Global Women Summit at New York. The list
is relative of the summit.The summit´s immediate goal is empowering
women globally.The question would be WHAT THEN? This is too
early to answer it. A tentative answer is it should await until we
reach that bridge that would be heralded by the acknowledgement
by the Nobel Peace Award Committee and the awarding to the
bridge builders the year´s sole Nobel Peace Prize,not a shared
one as it was last year shared by three individuals,two African and
an Arab women.The need of the hour is to achieve equal participation
of women in public life on fifty+fifty basis without any handicap points.
Taravadu Taranga Trust for Media Monitoring TTTMM India
–Kulamarva Balakrishna
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@sick of this nonsense:
Why so many Bhuttos? The only one of them who deserves to be in that list is perhaps Benazir Bhutto, but sadly her biggest achievement was being the first female PM of a Muslim country – her track record as a PM on basis of merit is one of the worst in this country’s history.
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ET please correct the spellings, its not FORM THE US but FROM!! and on other note seriously?! sherry rehman and shehrbano?! I have truly lost respect for international polls now… a far better choice would have been sharmeen obaid chinoy and rukaiya and zakia-the acid attack victims featured in her documentary film!
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Millions of women every day manage their lives and families with the most meager of resources. They brave hardships, they raise their children, and they live in poverty. These are the brave women of Pakistan, not women who’ve enjoyed luxuries at the expense of the public and have always had all the privileges of an elite class…what on earth is so brave about Sherbano Taseer? This list is compiled on the basis of western priorities and perspectives keeping in mind their interests in our part of the world. Amazing that all it takes is for a woman to simply go against the grain in order for Newsweek and the self-loathing crowd within to start handing out awards for outstanding character. Veena Malik? You must be kidding! How about Dr Afia Siddiqi’s sister or the old lady who stood outside the Supreme Court and demanded justice for the “missing people”…both of these women have demonstrated far more courage in each of their public appearances than either Sherry Rehman of Sherbano Taseer have in their entire lives. I find this list to be yet another revolting demonstration of western ethnocentric tendencies and the faster-than-instant acceptance that follows virtually all things western among certain “liberal” circles of our country. What else can one expect from ET…its engineered to represent the most flawed and inferiority complex ridden form of liberalism one could possibly encounter in Pakistan.
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Great !! both women deserve to be on the list.
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How can we forget Dr.Aafia…perhaps she is more brave than the western men even..!!Recommend
BB was fearless – no doubt about that. Despite all the threats she had on her life, and that assassination attempt on her arrival in Karachi, she continued to campaign for the elections and engage with the masses. Whether she was a competent PM is another matter, one that this list was not made to discuss.
Sherry is brave for her sticking up against misuse of the Blasphemy Law despite the assassination of Salman Taseer and Shabaz Bhatti. While most of the nation was silent on this issue, she spoke up in defense of minority communities in Pakistan. There was a reward offered for her life even, but she did not lower her voice.
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I read the title and it was enough for me to comment – WTF….hahahahaaa…. Seriously… Please.. can anyone remind me what has Sherbano Taseer done to be on this list?
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I guess Dr.Aafia is that brave lady whom whole nation admires…
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@ Farah
But in meantime ur mullahs friends are free to preach hatred against non-muslims and should be free to wanker around, while 1000 non-muslims are falsely accused of insulting prophet Mohammad and are in rotting in jails for years without trials, thanks to the stupid blasphemy laws! and islam is religion of peace huh?
Facts remains, people like Sherbano knows what humanity, love, respect and tolerance means!
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Why not Sharmeela Farooqi and Fauzai wahab??
Also missing Shehla Reza, Firdaus Ashiq Awan and Shazia Marii
CAT FIGHT
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Pakistan have long list of brave woman ,considering the sick mentality of common and majority of people .Really proud of these two women and many more not mention in the article.
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@Haidar:
I am with you on this one! I, too, was wondering why Shehrbano Taseer has been mentioned. She HAS given interviews and written some meaningful articles- however that is not tantamount to ‘bravery’. My attempt here is not to degrade her or her family or her achievements, whatever they may be, but it is to say that she has a LONG way to go until she can reserve a spot for herself on this coveted list.
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Veena Malik is just humiliating Pakistan all over!
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lol and what about these women being corrupt for their own gains???
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@Haidar:
Sheherbano writes for NewsWeek – the publication behind the website !
so enough for her to be in the list :)Recommend
Why are they in PPP that is the question? To be in that party you have to be ethics deficit.
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amna masood janjua must also be part of the list
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Nobody is taking a name of Begum Rana Liaquat Ali Khan.
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Sure. Lets put all the rich privileged women in the list. Who cares about the millions of poverty stricken women in Pakistan who didn’t have the good fortune to be born into influential families and didn’t get all the opportunities needed to make it into this list.
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@Ali S:
Nusrat Bhutto and BB stood up to a dictator when their husband/father was in prison. That is why so many Bhuttos. People who say she was incompetent forget that she had many strong enemies within the state and the mulla faction who were firmly against her, working in those conditions requires guts that few man have, let alone a woman.
@Sajida
Not everybody is “ethics deficit” in PPP. Same goes with all other parties, even the new darling party PTI.
@Pakistan politics:
She was paraded naked, her brother sodomized and we say the charges were trumped up. Sigh.
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glad to see shehrbano taser on this list… she spoke out when all of Pakistan fell silent and did not dare to speak against religious exremism… well done girl, we are proud of you. you are definitely a brave soul … ur father is alive with us allRecommend
@ Salsal , @ ProudPakistani
: I totally agree.
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I could think of hundred other women who would be a better fit than these two. If losing a dad qualifies one for being brave, then there are many Pakistani women who have lost their entire families and are more deserving. Ridiculous.
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And please add the name of every girl who goes out to work among male chauvinists in our society. For she is the one who when refuses to succumb to their lustful desires, is thrown mercilessly in the abyss of distress and anonymity by them.
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How ironic!! all these women are those who are promoting the agenda of the West!!
fame is so cheap these days that it needs all ones strength to keep oneself away from becoming famous!!
Gosh!! when will we open our eyes to reality..
Iqbal rightly said,
Dil e bina bhi kr Khuda se talab
Ankh ka noor dil ka noor nahin!!
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@Ali S:
All women are great and must be respected. In true Islam, you should be judged how good you are to your wife, as a woman. Your paradise is under the feet of your mother. And you deserve to be in paradise if you bring up your daughter the best way possible!
As for Ms.Bhutto (or Mrs. Zardari), History should be the best Judge. I knew Mr. Bhutto when he was the Foreign Minister and I was in Law College. Later, I wrote him from UK not to be mislead by mullahs. But he started the mess in Pakistan. I wrote to Ms. Bhutto twice from USA, (as she became Prime minister twice) that try to correct the mistake her father made but received no reply. They brought Zia to ruin Pakistan. That is great!
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@ZYX
You deserve a round of applause man! You wrote everything I wanted to say. Can I recommend your comment a dozen times more???
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Veena Malik must be added in the Pakistan’s fearless women’s list also because she also has done the most bravest and courageous acts to display the freedom of expression in much the best and excellent way.
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