In memoriam : ‘Her fight was political not personal’

Nation’s pre-eminent women rights activist remembered .

LAHORE: “Tahira Mazhar Ali’s fight was political not personal,” said Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Director IA Rehman on Sunday.

He was speaking at a memorial reference organised at the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) Secretariat to pay tribute to Ali. Rehman said he had gotten acquainted with Ali through her husband who happened to be the editor of a newspaper that he worked for. He said Ali was vociferous about her opinions. Rehman said she possessed a knack for developing a relationship with everyone. “She would talk to people and get to know their families and not just them,” he said.  He said Ali was a pragmatist who was never apologetic about her political loyalties.

Rights activist Hina Jilani said she had gotten to know Ali over the course of their joint struggle against the Zia regime. She said there was a group in the Women Action Forum that wanted to limit the movement only to women rights and keep it aloof from the political struggle against the regime. Jilani said Ali strived to ensure that this did not happen. She said she was adamant that women rights could not be promoted without partaking in the larger struggle for greater political freedom and rights. “Her thoughts were extremely contemporary and universal,” she said.

SAFMA president Imtiaz Alam said Ali hailed from a generation that had worked to challenge the founding premise and definition of the Pakistani state being furthered in mainstream politics. Alam said the time was ripe for the Left to introspect and see what it had been doing to address contemporary challenges. He said such movements could play an active role in formulating a narrative against extremism, function as pressure groups, lobby governments for greater rights and raise awareness regarding the human cost of development.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2015.