In her teenage, she began her journey to defend her father who was victimized for maintaining explicit views against totalitarianism and opposing the military regimes. Probably this was the source of inspiration, that the small heroine chose a career where she could raise her voice against oppression and miseries of depressed segments of society such as girls , children and religious minorities.
Asma Jilani Jahangir was born on January 27 , 1952 at Karachi in an educated and political family members. Asma discovered a lot from the suffering of her parents for being outspoken against ruthless standard technique and the annihilation in the Pakistani society by the absolute ruling attitude of the governments. Asma Jilani came into the lime light by her famous petition titled as -“Asma Jilani versus Government of the Punjab“- in which she challenged the illegal detention of her father, Malik Ghulam Jilani below the Martial Law. The case was not only decided in her favor but it also paved the way for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.
Soon after this, Asma Jahangir started her operate for defending the human rights and she along with her sister Hina Jilani established a law firm for this result in. A new pressure group named as Females’s Action Forum was also formed via which she began a campaign to oppose the discrimination against women. This was the era of the then dictator General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and the exploitation for private gains in the name of religion was at its peak. Asma Jahangir and her companions began protests against the proposed Law of Evidence and the Hadood Ordinances as a result of which they faced violence , coercion and arrests.
In 1982, Asma Jahangir also lead a march towards Islamabad with the motto of reformation in Family members Laws when Zia-ul-Haq decided to enforce religious laws in the country. In 1986 Asma Jahangir established a totally free legal aid set up named as AGHS Legal Aid with a shelter home for the deprived women named as ” DASTAK“.
Asma Jahangir remained affiliated as a founder member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and was elected twice as the chairperson of the same nonprofit organization . The major goal for establishing HRCP was to highlight human rights abuses in Pakistan , to make certain and monitor the standard fundamental rights of typical citizen and to affirm the suitable implementation of the norms and clauses of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pakistan.
Asma Jahangir was assigned as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or arbitrary execution of the Commission on Human Rights and in 2004 she was appointed United Nation Specific Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief of the Council of Human Rights.
Asma Jahangir was also in the forefronts in the movements of restoration of democracy and independent of judiciary throughout the dictatorial regime of Pervez Musharraf. She played an essential part in mobilizing the civil society activist groups against the oppression of Pervez Musharaf government. Just before that she remained a big critic of the thought of Enlightened Moderation presented by Musharraf stating that no substantial change had occurred on the state of human rights in Pakistan but the situation could by no means be improved under Military rule. Asma Jahangir was elected as the President of Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan in 2010 and as a result she became the first woman president of the most prestigious Bar of the legal fraternity of Pakistan.
Throughout her career, Asma Jilani Jahangir has remained beneath continuous criticism from the hardliners which includes the religious groups alleging her to market anti islamic tips. Rather of that Asma Jahangir continued her struggle to bring out reformation in the blasphemy laws , Hadood Ordinance and other violations like honor killings, use of bonded labor , persecution of minorities and other violence in the name of religion. She faced rough treatment on number of occasions from the extremists and the local law enforcement agencies in the course of her activism campaigns.
Despite the numerous controversies, the services of this brave lady to safeguard the basic basic rights of Pakistani citizens can never ever be ignored. She has not only been acknowledged on the domestic level but she also been awarded with accolades at international level. She is becoming recipient of honorary doctorate degree of Law from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, Queen’s University, Canada, and Amherst College, USA.
Asma Jahangir’s prominent distinctions include Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders , the Ramon Magsaysay Award , the Millennium prize, by UNIFEM (the United Nations Improvement Fund for Girls), Hilal-i-Imtiaz the second highest civilian award of Pakistan and UNESCO/Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights.
In 2000, the Dawn group also published “Whither are We!” by Asma Jahangir.In 2005, Asma Jahangir was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as portion of the 1000 Females for Peace project. Her famous literary functions include “Divine Sanction? The Hudood Ordinance” and “Youngsters of a Lesser God: Child Prisoners of Pakistan” .
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