Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) was the first female and youngest person ever elected to lead Pakistan, a Muslim state. She led the country in two terms, from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996. However, she was later assassinated in Karachi on 27 December 2007, despite a failed attempt on the day she landed in Pakistan, which resulted in an injury.
In 1989, Bhutto was awarded the Prize for Freedom by the Liberal International for initiatives in nationalist reforms and modernisation. Also, she proposed to repeal the harsh measures which the Zina and Hudud ordinances entailed. The Hudud is used to describe the fixed punishments in the Islamic law, and Zina, an Arabic term for extramarital sex, is considered as one of the major sins in the Islamic law. The law states that offenders of Zina after marriage are to be stoned, and Bhutto thought that this was not exactly the right way to punish the offenders.
She also proposed to stop the honour killings in some of the Muslim states. Honour killings are carried out by the male members of the Muslim family in order to preserve a family's honour when a female refuses an arranged marriage or seeks a divorce, even after sexual assault. Bhutto wanted to put a stop to these killings. She believed that every human has a claim to life, and that no one has the right to take the life of a fellow human.
Portraying herself as a progressive socialist and democrat, she emphasised the need for social democracy as the answer to all of Pakistan's woes, intending to resist militant rule along with her party, which she believed was largely responsible for the stagnating system of rule.
"A mixed economy, informed with an egalitarian spirit, is the inevitable need". From this statement, we can tell that she was a person who ratified the necessity of equality, not just in reference to gender roles, but also in all aspects of life. While she may no longer live on in this world, one can be sure that her ideals will continue to live on, simply because she was a catalyst for change, one which touched the hearts and minds of the people in Pakistan.