Things That Bang

We mourn the death of one of our own. She maybe a sister who died across the border but to us she was a fearless feminist who loved her country and died a martyr leaving behind a grieving family and a devastated nation. Benazir Bhutto to some was a corrupt politician to others an idealist but at this point when we remember her the opinions that matte the most are of those who knew her personally.

Arianna Huffington talks Benazir Bhutto in a candid article:

Three years earlier, I had seen her at the height of her power and fullness of life when she was staying at Blair House in Washington, DC as the visiting prime minister of Pakistan -- the first woman prime minister in the Muslim world. She had her third child with her and took me to her bedroom to meet her. Then she sat on the bed with her baby in her arms while we laughed about our lives on the debating circuit, and talked about her life now.

Adrianna and Benazir had been friends since their college days. Benazir had been an Oxford Union President and Adrianna President of the Cambridge Union. They met often enough during college debates and others activities and the meeting of minds led to a strong bonding and lasted for more than a decade.

And she considered Bhutto to be unique, a fearless woman willing to put her life in danger to bring democracy to Pakistan:

I long ago realized that my personal life was to be subjugated to my political responsibilities. When my democratically elected father, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was arrested in 1977 and subsequently murdered, the mantle of leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party, our nation's largest, nationwide grassroots political structure, was suddenly thrust upon me. It was not the life I planned, but it is the life I have. My husband and children accept and understand that my political responsibilities to the people of Pakistan come first, as painful as that personally is to all of us. I would like to be planning my son's move to his first year at college later this month, but instead I am planning my return to Pakistan and my party's parliamentary election campaign.

I didn't choose this life. It chose me.

Related Post: Voices From Pakistan