Asma Jahangir | |
|---|---|
عاصمہ جہانگیر | |
.jpg) Jahangir in 2013 | |
| United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Religion or Belief | |
| In office 1 November 2016[1] – 11 February 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Ahmed Shaheed |
| Succeeded by | Javaid Rehman |
| President of Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan | |
| In office 27 October 2010 – 31 October 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Qazi Anwar |
| Succeeded by | Rasheed A Rizvi |
| Head of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan | |
| In office 1987–2011 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Zohra Yusuf |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Asma Jilani (1952-01-27)27 January 1952 Lahore,West Punjab,Pakistan[2] |
| Died | 11 February 2018(2018-02-11) (aged 66) Lahore,Punjab, Pakistan |
| Cause of death | Brain hemorrhage[2] |
| Spouse | Tahir Jahangir |
| Children | 3, includingMunizae |
| Relatives | Hina Jilani (sister) |
| Residence | Lahore |
| Alma mater | Punjab University (LL.B.) Kinnaird College (BA) |
| Profession | Lawyer, Human Rights Activist |
| Awards | Nishan-e-Imtiaz (2018) (Posthumously) Right Livelihood Award,United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights (2018) Right Livelihood Award (2016) Légion d'Honneur (2014) Stefanus Prize (2014) North-South Prize of theCouncil of Europe (2012) Four Freedoms Award (2010) Hilal-i-Imtiaz (2010) Ramon Magsaysay Award (2005) Leo Eitinger Award (2002) Martin Ennals Award (1995) |
Asma Jilani Jahangir (Urdu:عاصمہ جہانگیر,romanized: ʿĀṣimah Jahāṉgīr; 27 January 1952 – 11 February 2018) was a Pakistanihuman rightslawyer andsocial activist who co-founded and chaired theHuman Rights Commission of Pakistan and AGHS Legal Aid Cell.[3] Jahangir was known for playing a prominent role in theLawyers' Movement and served as theUnited Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief and as a trustee at theInternational Crisis Group.[4][5][6]
Born and raised inLahore, Jahangir studied at theConvent of Jesus and Mary before receiving herB.A. fromKinnaird andLLB from thePunjab University Law College in 1978 and joined the chamber of Barrister Ijaz Hussain Batalvi. In 1980, she wascalled to theLahore High Court, and to theSupreme Court in 1982. In the 1980s, Jahangir became ademocracy activist and was imprisoned in 1983 for participating in theMovement for the Restoration of Democracy against the military regime ofZia-ul-Haq. In 1986, she moved toGeneva, and became the vice-chair of theDefence for Children International and remained until 1988 when she returned to Pakistan.[7]
In 1987, Jahangir co-founded theHuman Rights Commission of Pakistan and became itsSecretary-General. In 1993, she was elevated as the commission's chairperson.[8] She was again put underhouse arrest in November 2007 after the imposition ofemergency. After serving as one of the leaders of theLawyers' Movement, she became Pakistan's first woman to serve as the President ofSupreme Court Bar Association, she presided over a Seminar to pay homage to Barrister Ijaz Hussain Batalvi organised byAkhtar Aly Kureshy Convenier Ijaz Hussain Batalvi Foundation.[9][10] She co-chairedSouth Asia Forum for Human Rights and was the vice president ofInternational Federation for Human Rights.[11] Jahangir served as theUnited Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion from August 2004 to July 2010, including serving on the U.N. panel for inquiry into Sri Lankan human rights violations and on aUnited Nations fact-finding mission onIsraeli settlements.[12][13] In 2016, she was named as theUnited Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights inIran, remaining until her death in February 2018.[14][15]
Jahangir is the recipient of several awards including the 2014Right Livelihood Award (along withEdward Snowden) for "defending, protecting and promoting human rights in Pakistan and more widely, often in very difficult and complex situations and at great personal risk", 2010Freedom Award,Hilal-i-Imtiaz in 2010,Sitara-i-Imtiaz,Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2005, 1995Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, and theUNESCO/Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights. She was awarded aLegion of Honour by France, and in 2016 theUniversity of Pennsylvania Law School awarded her anhonorary degree.[16][17][18] Her writings includeThe Hudood Ordinance: A Divine Sanction? andChildren of a Lesser God.[19]
Jahangir was posthumously awarded theNishan-e-Imtiaz on 23 March 2018, the highest degree of service to the state, and for services to international diplomacy byMamnoon Hussain.[20][21]
Asma Jahangir was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan, into a prosperous and politically activeKakazaiPashtun family,[22] with a history of activism and human rights work. Her father, Malik Ghulam Jilani,[23] was a civil servant who entered politics upon retirement and spent years both in jail and under house arrest for opposing military dictatorships. Malik was imprisoned on several occasions for his outspoken views, which included denouncing the Pakistani government for genocide during their military action in what is nowBangladesh (formerlyEast Pakistan).[24]
Her mother, Begum Sabiha Jilani (1927–2012),[25][26] was educated at a co-ed college namedForman Christian College situated in Lahore,[25] at a time when few Muslim women even received higher education. Sabiha also fought the traditional system, pioneering her own clothing business until her family's lands were confiscated in 1967 as a result of her husband's opinions and detention.[27]
Jahangir herself became involved at a young age in protests against the military regime as well as opposing her father's detention by then president,Benazir Bhutto's father,Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972. She received her B.A. fromKinnaird College,Lahore and her Bachelor of Law degree(LLB) in 1978,[28] fromPunjab University Law College. She also held an honorary doctorate fromUniversity of St. Gallen in Switzerland,[29]Queens University, Canada,Simon Fraser University, Canada andCornell University, United States.
Asma Jilani married Tahir Jahangir, a member of business clan who owns Premier Group.[30] He currently serves as thechairman of the Punjab Oil Mills.[31] They had a son, Jillani Jahangir who runs family business, and two daughters,Munizae Jahangir, a journalist and Sulema Jahangir, who is also a lawyer.[32] Her family is one of the sponsor of the Punjab Oil Mills which sells cooking oil under brands, Canolive and Zaiqa.[33][34]
She spent her career defending the human andwomen's rights, rights ofreligious minorities and children in Pakistan. Jahangir was a staunch critic of theHudood Ordinance and blasphemy laws of Pakistan put in place as part of General MuhammadZia-ul-Haq's Islamization program in Pakistan.[35][36] She was a founding member of theHuman Rights Commission of Pakistan, and served as Secretary-General and later Chairperson of the organisation.
In 1980, Jahangir and her sister,Hina Jilani, got together with fellow activists and lawyers to form the first law firm established by women in Pakistan. In the same year they also helped form theWomen’s Action Forum (WAF), a pressure group campaigning against Pakistan's discriminatory legislation, most notably against the Proposed Law of Evidence, where the value of a woman's testimony was reduced to half that of a man's testimony, and the Hadood Ordinances, where victims of rape had to prove their innocence or else face punishment themselves.[37] On 12 February 1983, the Punjab Women Lawyers Association in Lahore organised a public protest (one of its leaders was Jahangir) against the Proposed Law of Evidence, during which Jahangir and other participating WAF members were beaten, teargassed, and arrested by police.[38]
The first WAF demonstration, however, took place in 1983 when some 25–50 women took to the streets protesting the controversial case of Safia Bibi. In 1983, Safia, a blind 13-year-old girl, was raped by her employers, and as a result became pregnant, yet ended up in jail charged with fornication (zina) sentenced toflogging, three years of imprisonment and fined. Jahangir defended Safia in her appeal and eventually the verdict was over-ruled by an appeals court due to pressure and protests.[39] They would say: "We [their law firm] had been given a lot of cases by the advocate general and the moment this demonstration came to light, the cases were taken away from us."[40] In 1982, Jahangir earned the nickname "little heroine" after leading a protest march inIslamabad against a decision by then-presidentZia-ul-Haq to enforce religious laws and stated: "Family laws [which are religious laws] give women few rights" and that "They have to be reformed because Pakistan cannot live in isolation. We cannot remain shackled while other women progress".[41]
In 1986, Jahangir and Hina set upAGHS Legal Aid Cell, the first free legal aid centre in Pakistan. TheAGHS Legal Aid Cell in Lahore also runs a shelter for women, called 'Dastak', looked after by her secretary Munib Ahmed.[42] She was also a proponent of protecting the rights of persecuted religious minorities in Pakistan and spoke out against forced conversions.[43] Jahangir campaigned against human rights abuses taking place in government and police custody in Pakistan. In a letter toThe New York Times, she said that "Women are arrested, raped and sexually assaulted every day in the presence of female constables, who find themselves helpless in such situations".[44]
In 1996, theLahore High Court ruled that an adult Muslim woman could not get married without the consent of her male guardian (wali). Women, who chose their husbands independently, could be forced to annul their marriages and the repercussions were highlighted by Jahangir, who also took on such cases (i.e. the case of Saima Waheed);[45][46] "Hundreds have already been arrested. This is simply going to open up the floodgates for the harassment of women and girls by their families and the authorities. The courts have sanctioned their oppression. Thousands more are bound to be affected by this."[47]
Jahangir demanded that the government ofParvez Musharraf work to improve the record of human rights domestically. Citing examples of human rights abuses, she wrote, "A Hindu income tax inspector gets lynched in the presence of the army personnel for allegedly having made a remark on the beard of a trader. Promptly, the unfortunate Hindu government servant is booked for having committed blasphemy, while the traders and theLashkar-e-Taiba activists were offered tea over parleys. A seventy-year-old Mukhtaran Bibi and her pregnant daughter Samina are languishing in Sheikhupura jail on trumped-up charges of blasphemy".[48]
"We never learnt the right lessons. We never went to the root of the problem. Once you start politicising religion, you play with fire and you get burnt as well."
She was also an active opponent of child labour and capital punishment: "It would be hypocrisy to defend laws I don't believe in, like capital punishment, the blasphemy law and laws against women and in favor of child labor."[41] Asma Jahangir served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions from 1998 to 2004, and as the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief from 2004 to 2010.[50] In her capacity as a UN official, Jahangir was inPakistan, whenPervez Musharraf declared astate of emergency in 2007. In November 2006, she participated the international meeting forThe Yogyakarta Principles as one of 29 experts. On 5 November 2007,UN High Commissioner for Human RightsLouise Arbour indicated that Jahangir was among the judicial and political officials detained by the Musharraf government.[51]
On 18 January 2017, Jahangir became the first Pakistani to deliver the 2017 Amartya Sen Lecture at theLondon School of Economics, where she called for a counter-narrative of liberal politics to challenge religious intolerance. She added that there was a "large scale impunity" among those who commit crimes in the name of religion, and this has to be addressed at the national as well as the international levels, the rights activist said. "In 1986, Pakistan got theblasphemy law. So, while we had just two cases of blasphemy before that year, now we have thousands. It shows that one should be careful while bringing religion into legislation, because the law itself can become an instrument of persecution," she added.[52]
In August 2017, Jahangir represented the families of terror convicts sentenced to death by military tribunals before the Supreme Court inSaid Zaman Khan v. Federation of Pakistan. Jahangir asked order retrial in all cases in which military courts handed down convictions, including capital punishments, but the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the sentence of the convicts on 29 August 2017.[53]
Asma spoke against the five memberSupreme Court judgment which deposedNawaz Sharif from his premiership. She questioned why members ofInter-Services Intelligence and Military intelligence were inducted in Joint Investigation team ferreting out corruption by Sharif's family and his close companions. She questioned how the Panama case five judges would have felt if members of the ISI and MI were inducted in Supreme Judicial Council, a body authorised to punish erring judges.[54] Earlier she had suggested that ousted prime minister would get no relief from Supreme Court but from coming on streets.
In December 2017, Jahangir called for a probe by a parliamentary committee to ascertain as to who was behind the recentFaizabad sit-in. She questioned "We need to know how thearmy became a guarantor during the agreement between thegovernment andprotesters. Why money was distributed among the protesters,".[55]
In her last case before the Supreme Court, Jahangir appeared for formerMember of the National Assembly Rai Hasan Nawaz inSami Ullah Baloch v. Abdul Karim Nousherwani in February 2018. She argued that there should not be a constant period of electoral disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution, but courts should decide the question according to the conduct of individuals. She said the Supreme Court had held Nawaz Sharif eligible to contest elections in 2009 by deeming himsadiq andameen, but now it was difficult to understand whether the court had increased the bar of honesty or reduced it.[56][57]
On 5 November 2007,The Economist reported that "Over 500 lawyers, opposition politicians and human rights activists have been arrested. They include Asma Jahangir, boss of the country's human-rights commission and a former UN special rapporteur. In an e-mail from her house arrest, where she has been placed for 90 days, Ms Jahangir regretted that General Musharraf had 'lost his marbles'".[58][59][60]
According toDawn "many people go ballistic every time her name is mentioned", adding that "a pattern: often wild, unsubstantiated allegations are levelled against her."[61] According to Herald "HRCP in general and Asma Jahangir in particular have also been branded as 'traitors' and 'American agents', trying to malign Pakistan and destroy the country's social and political fabric in the name of women’s rights and the rights of non-Muslims."[61] Commenting on her legal style,Dawn wrote that she used "calculated aggression, wit and sharp one-liners."[61] In the mid-1980s, theZia-ul-Haq-appointedMajlis-e-Shoora passed a resolution claiming that Jahangir had blasphemed and she should be sentenced to death. She was found not guilty of blasphemy.[61]
Declan Walsh, writing forThe Guardian, described Jahangir's career as "for almost four decades she has towered over Pakistan's human rights war." Adding that "she has championed battered wives, rescued teenagers from death row, defended people accused of blasphemy, and sought justice for the victims of honour killings. These battles have won her admirers and enemies in great number."[62]Abbas Nasir has described her as the "gutsiest woman that Pakistan has".[62]William Dalrymple, writing forThe New Yorker, described Jahangir as Pakistan's "most visible and celebrated—as well as most vilified—human-rights lawyer", adding that she has "spent her professional life fighting for a secular civil society, challenging the mullahs and generals."[63]
Several conservative and nationalist commenters have written extensively against Jahangir.Ansar Abbasi andOrya Maqbool Jan have been critical of Jahangir.[64] On 3 September 2013,NDTV reported that US intelligence agencies had uncovered evidence of a plot hatched by Pakistani security officials to use militants to kill human rights activist Asma Jahangir in India in May 2012.[65] Jahangir has received numerous threats over the years due to her activism and human rights work[35][66]and particularly after defending a 14-year-old Christian boy, Salamat Masih, accused of blasphemy[67][68] and ultimately winning the case in 1995,[69] a mob at the High Court smashed Jahangir's car, assaulted her and her driver, threatening her with death.[70] Jahangir and her family have been attacked, taken hostage, had their home broken into and received death threats ever since, but she continued her battle for justice.[41][71][72]
When Jahangir undertook the case of Saima Sarwar in 1999, who was given shelter at Dastak after leaving her husband, wanting a divorce and later gunned down by her family in an act ofhonour killing, Jahangir received death threats for representing Saima in her divorce proceedings.[73][74][75][76] In May 2005 Jahangir announced that she would hold a symbolic mixed-gender marathon in Lahore to raise awareness about violence against women. This was following the revelations of cases such asMukhtar Mai. Tensions boiled over, as Islamist groups and supporters of the political Islamist allianceMuttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) armed with firearms, batons and Molotov cocktails,[77] violently opposed the race, and Jahangir received especially rough treatment from local police and intelligence agents, who began to strip off her clothes in public. Of this Jahangir said "A lot of people tried to cover my back because I could only feel it I could not see my back. When they were putting me on the police van, they assured that my photograph was taken while my back was bare. This was just to humiliate, this was simply just to humiliate me."[78] A police officer told Jahangir that they had orders to be strict and to tear off the participant's clothes. In addition she along with other participants was also beaten.[79]
The character of Saamiya Siddiqui, a lawyer in the 2004 Indian filmVeer-Zaara portrayed byRani Mukherji, was based on Jehangir where she fights for the case of an Indian Air Force officer imprisoned on false charges in Pakistan.[80] She had also appeared as an interviewee on an Indian television talk showNot a Nice Man to Know (1998), hosted byKhushwant Singh, onStar TV India.[81]
In addition to many publications, Jahangir wrote two books:Divine Sanction? The Hudood Ordinance (1988, 2003) andChildren of a Lesser God: Child Prisoners of Pakistan (1992).[82] She also wrote the article "Whither are We!", published inDawn, on 2 October 2000.[83]
Jahangir suffered from a stroke leading to brain hemorrhage in Lahore on 11 February 2018 and later died in hospital.[84][85][86]
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