A few days ago Pakistan lost an icon of human rights and democracy, a woman who spent her entire life fighting for those who needed her the most. She stood up to the powerful like no other could in today’s Pakistan.
We have always known, perhaps even taken for granted, that Asma Jahangir would be there to speak out against all that is ill with the country, against the latest atrocity against the minorities; against yet another foray by the Supreme Court and the army into spaces where they don’t belong. She stared down dictators like no other could, and took army to task for infringing upon politics till her very last.
Equally important have been her contributions to women’s rights and her struggle for a constitution that fosters equality for all regardless of ethnicity, sect, religion or gender. She wasn’t just a human rights lawyer and an activist, she was an advocate for humanity itself.
Indeed it is hard to imagine a Pakistan without Asma Jahangir, and many have rightly said that she left us when the country needed her the most, because of the political uncertainty and unprecedented levels of extremism that the state is experiencing, in no small part due to the recent mainstreaming of extremist outfits. But truth is, and I am sure that is what Ms. Jahangir herself would have told us, that Pakistan will live on, and it will always continue to benefit from and be inspired by her ideas.
Her fighting spirit will be with us always, and that’s what we need now and in the future. While Asma Jahangir deserves to be honored in a befitting manner, it would be a tragedy if we turned her into a uber-human being, lavished her with accolades but forgot all about her mission. Sometimes by elevating our greats to an other worldly level we say that this is something we can’t do, and by doing that we lose the spirit and essence of the great life we seek to honor; the best way to honor Ms. Jahangir would be to continue her work. Apathy is no longer an option.
There is no doubt that life without Asma Jahangir will be different, harder. Work of a larger-than-life figure would have to be taken up by many as no one man or woman is capable of filling her shoes. Thousands or millions would have to take up her mission and raise their voices, creating a tipping point which would bring about the change Ms. Jahangir spent her life fighting for.
The truth is that Asma Jahangir will live on forever. She will live on in every voice that rises for our most basic freedoms; she will live on in the reminders to the judiciary and the military when they overstep their roles in society as prescribed by the Constitution; she will stand with us when we stand up for the minorities and women; she will live on and speak through us when we raise our collective voices for those who are too weak to fight for themselves; she will live when we join hands and stand like a wall in front of tyrannical forces of extremism.
And that’s how we will live without Asma Jahangir, inspired by her tireless and fearless life, to always fight for humanity. And when we fight on we will know that she stands right besides us.
It would be befitting if the government was to establishing an award in her name perhaps called, ‘The Asma Jahangir Humanitarian Award,’ to be awarded each year for excellence in humanitarian causes.
Asma Jahangir did not go gentle into the night, she wouldn’t have known how to do that. It’s our turn now. Let us honor the little woman, who was a giant among men, by picking up the torch and carry it to its ultimate destination of making Pakistan a tolerant country and a more perfect democracy where everyone’s freedoms are protected.
We have always known, perhaps even taken for granted, that Asma Jahangir would be there to speak out against all that is ill with the country, against the latest atrocity against the minorities; against yet another foray by the Supreme Court and the army into spaces where they don’t belong. She stared down dictators like no other could, and took army to task for infringing upon politics till her very last.
Equally important have been her contributions to women’s rights and her struggle for a constitution that fosters equality for all regardless of ethnicity, sect, religion or gender. She wasn’t just a human rights lawyer and an activist, she was an advocate for humanity itself.
Indeed it is hard to imagine a Pakistan without Asma Jahangir, and many have rightly said that she left us when the country needed her the most, because of the political uncertainty and unprecedented levels of extremism that the state is experiencing, in no small part due to the recent mainstreaming of extremist outfits. But truth is, and I am sure that is what Ms. Jahangir herself would have told us, that Pakistan will live on, and it will always continue to benefit from and be inspired by her ideas.
Her fighting spirit will be with us always, and that’s what we need now and in the future. While Asma Jahangir deserves to be honored in a befitting manner, it would be a tragedy if we turned her into a uber-human being, lavished her with accolades but forgot all about her mission. Sometimes by elevating our greats to an other worldly level we say that this is something we can’t do, and by doing that we lose the spirit and essence of the great life we seek to honor; the best way to honor Ms. Jahangir would be to continue her work. Apathy is no longer an option.
There is no doubt that life without Asma Jahangir will be different, harder. Work of a larger-than-life figure would have to be taken up by many as no one man or woman is capable of filling her shoes. Thousands or millions would have to take up her mission and raise their voices, creating a tipping point which would bring about the change Ms. Jahangir spent her life fighting for.
The truth is that Asma Jahangir will live on forever. She will live on in every voice that rises for our most basic freedoms; she will live on in the reminders to the judiciary and the military when they overstep their roles in society as prescribed by the Constitution; she will stand with us when we stand up for the minorities and women; she will live on and speak through us when we raise our collective voices for those who are too weak to fight for themselves; she will live when we join hands and stand like a wall in front of tyrannical forces of extremism.
And that’s how we will live without Asma Jahangir, inspired by her tireless and fearless life, to always fight for humanity. And when we fight on we will know that she stands right besides us.
It would be befitting if the government was to establishing an award in her name perhaps called, ‘The Asma Jahangir Humanitarian Award,’ to be awarded each year for excellence in humanitarian causes.
Asma Jahangir did not go gentle into the night, she wouldn’t have known how to do that. It’s our turn now. Let us honor the little woman, who was a giant among men, by picking up the torch and carry it to its ultimate destination of making Pakistan a tolerant country and a more perfect democracy where everyone’s freedoms are protected.