Jashan-e-Azadi Function
Savirya Foundation
London – 16 August 2003
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is a pleasure for me to be in Dewsbury at the invitation of the Savirya Foundation. I congratulate Savirya Foundation under Syeda Hussain for the excellent work it is doing in supporting women and children in Pakistan and Kashmir.
I am asked to share my experiences as a woman elected to a leadership position in a traditional Muslim society.
I want you to know that the gauntlet of leadership was thrown down before me. I had no choice but to pick it up. Leadership is not easy. The road to leadership can be difficult and sad.
Leadership is born of a passion, and it is a commitment. A commitment to an idea, to a people, to a land.
I travel, never knowing when I will see my husband again. He was arrested the night my government was overthrown in November 1996 seven years ago. I miss my children. They are all under fourteen. It is difficult explaining to little children why their mother can’t be with them, why their father is a political prisoner.
I am reconciled to the fact that the needs of my 150 million people come first, and will always come first.
Women have to make difficult choices, often choices that men are not forced to make. But we do it for all the women who came before us who gave us this opportunity. And most of all, we do it for all woman who will come after us — the baby girls yet unborn!
I am asked often why I continue on a journey that is difficult and painful. I do so out of the belief that my leadership changed much, and can change more, for my country and for those denied the right of choice. I do it because I must, this is my life, and this is my mission.
I was brought up in a political family. In a way, I was groomed for politics. Yet, a political role was not one that I actively sought. It came to me through an accident of fate.
I had just completed my education and returned to Pakistan in 1977 when the tanks rumbled up the road in Rawalpindi and troops took over the Prime Minister’s House. I was pulled into the political campaign by the arrest of senior party leaders.
My father was arrested, released, re-arrested, and, finally hanged. Two of my brothers were killed . Together my family has spent 25 years behind prison bars.
The military coup of 1977 put an end to my career goal to join the Foreign Service in Pakistan and become High Commissioner to England a country I had studied in and knew well.
Fate took over my life and my destiny was no longer in my hands.
As a child of my age, in the late sixties, I was influenced by the social ferment around me. The worldwide students movement, from Rawalpindi, to Washington, were important factors in my youth.
The fight against apartheid shaped the ferocity of my commitment to stand up for principle.
The burgeoning movement for women’s rights empowered and emboldened me.
As an Asian I protested the Vietnam war, a war that shook the world in the sixties.
These important steps helped shape my outlook on life, helped me focus on fighting injustice, promoting freedom and safeguarding the rights of the weak and dispossessed.
But above all, as a student in the west, where there are free elections, I saw the awesome power of the people changing policies, changing leaders, and changing history.
I came to Oxford at a time when the British politician, Enoch Powell, was threatening to throw all Asians into the sea.
While I was at Oxford, the Conservative party chose a woman, Margaret Thatcher, as the Leader of Opposition. The idea of the first female British Prime Minister became a topic for student discussions.
It was a thrilling moment for me, as a student, when Mrs. Thatcher, then leader of opposition, invited me to the House of Commons for tea. I entered the oldest Parliament in the world. I walked on flag stones that could tell a thousand tales of Kings, Queens and ordinary Mortals that walked on those same steps for centuries.
At Oxford, I was the first female foreigner to be elected as President of the Oxford Union.
The Oxford Union reflects the British Parliament. It was there that I learned to debate, slowly gaining confidence before an audience. And while I took part in debates, I was surrounded by statues of British Prime Minister from Gladstone who has been President of the Oxford Union.
I had been told that as a foreigner, I could not win the Presidency and should not run.
I had been told that as a woman, I could not win, and should not run.
But I did run and did win and overcame my fear of losing. I learned to overcome fear and to take risks. I learned never to give in when the task seemed formidable or impossible.
I had been told that as a woman I could never be elected Prime Minister in a Muslim country.
I had been told that, at 35, I was too young to run for the premiership.
But I had learnt to overcome my fear of losing.
I did run.
I did win.
I won because I refused to take “No” for an answer.
And that’s my message to young people here tonight.
Don’t take “No” for an answer.
Don’t be disappointed with a setback. Don’t let the obstacles stand in your way.
As the Prime Minister of Pakistan I appeared before an historic Joint Session of the United States Congress in 1989. In that address, the most meaningful line to me was my simple message to the woman of America, my message to the women of the world. Three simple, powerful words: YES YOU CAN!
Yes, you can achieve any goal you want to reach, If you don’t accept the status quo. Don’t accept traditional roles and traditional constraints.
Women have made progress since I went to University. We smashed many glass ceilings. But there are thousands left to break, many battles left to fight.
Sadly, the greatest obstacles to progress for women in the third millennium is the bigotry of some men, and no where is that bigotry more difficult than in the Taliban and the fanatics that ruled in Afghanistan. Women fight on several fronts.
We fight against terrorism. We fight against dictatorship and intolerance. We are threatened with a clash of civilizations.
These are difficult times. Freedom is under assault. Democracy is under assault.
The solutions will not be quick or simple. But we shall prevail.
In my father’s last letter to me before he was murdered by one of Pakistan’s earlier military tyrants, he quoted Tennyson:
“Ah, what shall I be at fifty if I find the world so bitter at twenty.”
So..be strong but do not be bitter.
I remember the words of a President, George Washington who said:
“ May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants- while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid”.
These words spoken centuries ago ring so true now.
Today there is terror, war, death destruction and fear.
I dream of a world where we can live in peace a world with out violence.
That’s what I dream of – a world free of fear a world at peace.
I believe women have an important role to play in building a world free from fear.
To me, women are not just the building blocs of the family; they are the building blocs of society.
They are responsible for the family’s household budget.
They bear most of the responsibility of child raising.
They are more sensitive to social issues like education and health.
They — far more than their husbands and brothers — are cautious about committing the lives of their children to war.
Women are the principal educators, not just of literacy but also of morality.
And once mobilized, once organized, once unleashed, the power of women to change their societies can never again be contained.
This is an age around the world where thousands of citizens, especially youth and women, can hold governments accountable to law and public trust.
This is an age of civic groups and civil society.
Savirya Foundation is a civic group. It has a role to play. I wish it well in playing that role and am delighted to have had this opportunity to share Jashan-e-Azadi with you.
I wish you all success, happiness and Jashan-e-Azadi Mubark.