ASMA JILANI JAHANGIR

 ASMA JILANI JAHANGIR

Asma Jilani Jahangir (27 January 1952 – 11 February 2018) was a Pakistani human rights lawyer and social activist who co-founded and chaired the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Jahangir was known for playing a prominent role in the Lawyers' Movement and served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief and as a trustee at the International Crisis Group.

Asma was born in Lahore, in Punjab province, into a prosperous and politically active family with a history of activism and human rights work. Asma was the daughter of Malik Ghulam Jilani, a civil servant who upon retirement became a politician and spent years both in jail and under house arrest for opposing military dictatorships, and his wife, Sabiha. Her mother, Sabiha was educated at a co-ed college named Forman Christian College 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.

Asma’s own involvement in politics had its roots in her youth, when her father became a vociferous critic of the military dictatorship in the 1960s, leading to periods of imprisonment and house arrest, against which Asma and Hina protested.

She received her B.A. from Kinnaird College, Lahore and her law degree in 1978, and her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from Punjab University. She also held an honorary doctorate from University of St. Gallen in Switzerland., Queens University, Canada, Simon Fraser University, Canada and Cornell University, United States.

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. Over the years, the clients they represented included women trying to divorce violent husbands, women trying to marry against the wishes of their parents, bonded laborers seeking freedom from their oppressive “owners,” religious minorities facing death sentences under the blasphemy laws, and relatives of the forcibly disappeared. In the same year they also helped form the Women’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.

On 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. Several of the protesters were jailed, as was Asma.

An outspoken critic of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment and fearless in the face of authority, she was imprisoned in 1983 for her work with the Movement to Restore Democracy during of General Zia ul-Haq’s military rule. In 2007, Pervez Musharraf, then a general, also put her under house arrest as the country’s lawyers and politicians began a movement to restore democracy.

 

In 1980, she was called to the Lahore High Court, and to the Supreme Court in 1982. In 1986, she moved to Geneva, and became the vice-chair of the Defence for Children International and remained until 1988 when she returned to Pakistan.

In 1986, Jahangir and Hina set up AGHS Legal Aid, the first free legal aid centre in Pakistan. The AGHS Legal Aid Cell in Lahore also runs a shelter for women, called 'Dastak'.

In 1987 she co-founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, later becoming its chairperson, a position she held until 2011. Her work gained global recognition for fairness in defending the most underprivileged, as did her outspoken condemnation of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, leading to death threats against her.

Her attempt in 2005 to hold a mixed gender marathon in Lahore to highlight violence against women resulted in attacks by conservative Islamist groups in which the police were complicit, later confessing that they had been ordered to beat the participants and tear off their clothes.

Asma served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions from 1998 to 2004, and as the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief 2004 to 2010.

An active member and as one of the leaders of the Lawyers' Movement, she became Pakistan's first woman to serve as the President of Supreme Court Bar Association from 2010 – 2012. Till her death, she spoke out against corruption in the legal community and advocated judicial reform.

In 2016 she was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran.

On 18 January 2017, Jahangir became the first Pakistani to deliver the 2017 Amartya Sen Lecture at the London School of Economics, where she called for a counter-narrative of liberal politics to challenge religious intolerance.

For four decades Asma Jahangir led the way in the struggle for human rights – especially those of women, children and religious minorities. But while her voice was appreciated by liberals who believed that the only way Pakistan’s civil society could progress was to improve its human rights record, she had powerful detractors who opposed her actions on the grounds that she was destroying the country’s traditional political and social fabric.

Asma Jahangir secured a number of victories during her life, from winning freedom for bonded labourers from their "owners" through pioneering litigation, to a landmark court case that allowed women to marry of their own volition. For many in Pakistan, Jahangir’s outspokenness made her a divisive figure. Journalists and politicians close to the military ritually attacked her as “secular,” “anti-Islamic,” “pro-Western” and a “foreign agent.” But when two of those journalists found themselves facing television bans in court, Jahangir was there to defend them. The journalists were reduced to silence. Jahangir always stood for a principle, even if it meant defending her most vituperative critics.

Jahangir is the recipient of several awards including the 2014 Right Livelihood Award (along with Edward 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", 2010 Freedom Award, Hilal-i-Imtiaz in 2010, Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2005, 1995 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, and the UNESCO/Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights. She was awarded a Legion of Honour by France, and in 2016 the University of Pennsylvania Law School awarded her an honorary degree.

At the time of her death, Asma Jahangir was also a member of Amnesty International’s Regional Advisory Group for the Asia-Pacific region.