In Profile: The brave-hearted Asma Jahangir

Pakistan’s iconic human rights defender may be gone, but her legacy lives on

Known for being a human rights champion and a defender of the oppressed, Asma Jahangir's unrelenting pursuit of human rights makes her a feminist icon for the women of Pakistan.  

Asma Jilani Jahangir was born in Lahore on January 27, 1952. She attended Lahore's Convent of Jesus and Mary and went to Kinnaird College for her BA. She earned her LLB degree in 1978 from the University of Punjab and was best known for her pro-democratic rights activism.

Jahangir knew her way around Pakistan's courts years before she became a lawyer because of her father's imprisonment at the hands of Yahya Khan. 

“Courts were not new to me,” she once said. “Even before his detention, my father was fighting many cases. He remained in jail in Multan. He remained in jail in Bannu. But we were not allowed to go see him there. We always saw him in court. So, for me, the courts were a place where you dressed up to see your father. It had a very nice feeling to it.”

Her training as a lawyer and her father's imprisonment led her to establish Pakistan's first all-women legal firm in her birthplace. Her clients included minorities facing the death penalty on blasphemy charges, bonded labourers, women who had been subjected to domestic violence and Christians who had fled the oppressive grip of feudal landowners. In 1995, Jahangir and sister Hina Jilani successfully defended two Christian teenagers - Salamat Masih and Rehmat Masih - in their appeals against death sentences for blasphemy. 

Her work as a human rights lawyer made her become the paragon of resistance against military rule, abuse of the law, and the suppression of free speech. 

Veteran lawyers of Pakistan note that Jahangir was a death-penalty opponent on principle and always raised her voice for democracy and civilian supremacy. 

Breaking the Glass Ceiling:

Jahangir was the first female lawyer in Pakistan to have been granted the status of senior advocate of the Supreme Court. In bar association politics, she headed the Independent Lawyers Group - which has been in the majority for the last decade largely due to her leadership. Senior lawyer Azam Nazeer Tarar once said that no one can fill the void Asma left. 

Because of Jahangir's prominent work as a lawyer, she was appointed as the United Nations Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran on September 30, 2016. She held this position till her death in February 2018. 

She was also one of the founding members of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) since it was established in 1987 and served as its Secretary-General until 1993. The same year, Jahangir became HRCP's chairperson, but later resigned when she decided to contest the election for the Supreme Court Bar Association presidency. 

In 2010, Jahangir was elected as the 13th President of the SCBA. 

Disrupting the Patriarchal Order: 

Jahangir's life-long struggle for democracy and challenging the dominant social, political and cultural systems in an inherently patriarchal society led her to periods of incarceration and house arrest. 

She was one of the leaders of the Women's Action Forum (WAF), a women's rights organisation in Pakistan that confronted General Zia-ul-Haq's Hudood Ordinance and discrimination against women. In 1983, Jahangir, along with other WAF protestors were subjected to fierce violence at the hands of state police. She was arrested for the first time for participating in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy. 

Jahangir was later put under house arrest during the Lawyers Movement in 2007. 

Awards and Accolades: 

For her work as a lawyer and activist, Jahangir received many international awards and accolades throughout her life. In 2010, she was awarded the Freedom of Worship Award, in 2014 she was honoured with the Rights Livelihood Award. in 2018, she received the posthumous UN Human Rights Prize 

She has also been awarded the Hilal-i-Imtiaz, Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Ramon Magsaysay Award, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (1995), UNESCO/Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights and Officier de la Legion d'honneur by France. 

“Asma! You are immortal”

Asma Jahangir died at the age of 66 after a cardiac arrest on February 11, 2018. Always remembered for her services towards building a democratic and more inclusive Pakistan, Pakistan's hard-pressed liberal community paid tribute to her in numerous ways.  

One such tribune was presented by the iconic poetess Kishwar Naheed: 

“Asma! Today a crack developed in the rampart of your city of Lahore

Mischievous and cunning, barbarism’s purveyors

Seem to be happy today at your passing

They were happy even that day

When Hasan Nasir, Faiz and the Bhutto family

Were sent to Allah Miyan (on the way to immortality)

Allah Miyan then saw, the same Satans

Sometimes Mashal, sometimes Naqeeb

And sometimes hacking young girls to pieces

They were congratulating the latter for saving honour

But God is not without justice

Asma the princess of peace!

You were hit by so many black wind gusts

How many poisonous bullets fired, like locusts

But you were saved because

In that, sobbing faces from place to place

Were waiting in anticipation

For your smile

Without a guile

They say spirits remain in motion through reincarnation

So much so that they achieve purification

Your restless but pure spirit Asma!

The bruises on the faces of all people dwelling in dust

Will change into light, gentle, fresh buds if they must

In all the ruined settlements

Hearing your footsteps daily

The sad and lightless eyes verily

Will light up

All the masters of the worship of torture

Will become extinct

But your spirit!

What to talk of sometimes, but often with the voice of the bird

And around the whole world

With the clouds roaring

Will be with us standing!”

 

Jahangir led the struggle for human rights in Pakistan for over four decades. She once said, “Pakistan cannot live in isolation. We cannot remain shackled while other women progress.” 

https://tribune.com.pk/?jwsource=cl