Politician, Shia Muslim, wife, mother, daughter, trail-blazer, advocate of democracy and former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was killed this past year on December 27th. The first ever woman elected to lead a Muslim state, at the age of 35 Bhutto took up her family's legacy and followed in the footsteps of her father who lived and died in his efforts to lead Pakistan. "I told him on my oath in his death cell" before his execution in 1979, Bhutto once recalled, that "I would carry on his work." An astute leader, Bhutto once remarked in an interview that "Every dictator uses religion as a prop to keep himself in power" - a frequent reality that holds true not only in her country but in so many others as well.
Twice elected as Pakistan's Prime Minister, Bhutto was also twice removed from her position facing charges of corruption brought by the country's president. In 1998 Bhutto entered a self-imposed exile in Dubai, returning to Pakistan this past October only after all charges were withdrawn and amnesty was granted to her by Pakistan's President Musharraf. Bhutto was well aware of the risk to her own life that might result from her return from exile to campaign for a leadership position in the upcoming general election. Exile and house arrest and imminent danger did little to silence Bhutto, though, and she asked all of us to take courage from a truth she knew and lived in her heart. "You can imprison a man," she would say, "but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea."
Upon her return to Pakistan on October 18th, Bhutto immediately became a target for assassination. Her vocal support of democracy in her country and in the Middle East, as well as her call for an end to violent expressions of Islam angered many. Bhutto believed democracy to be necessary to peace and to undermining the forces of terrorism - and she saw these twin goals as a higher calling than her own individual life. Bhutto loved her country and all of its potential and for this, she told us, she and her supporters "are prepared to risk our lives. We're prepared to risk our liberty. But we're not prepared to surrender this great nation to militants."
Killed while leaving a campaign rally for the Pakistan Peoples Party, Bhutto was laid to rest in her hometown beside her father in their family's mausoleum - but her passion for democracy and peace and for the full development of the potential of her country live on not only in her own son and husband who will take up the leadership of her political party, but in the people of Pakistan and in those who admire her courage and persistence around the world as well.
It would be easy to conclude, in remembering Benazir Bhutto's life and death, that standing up for what you believe in is risky business - business best left to somebody else - somebody, perhaps who has less to lose than we do. But Bhutto - a caring mother and wife - had plenty to lose. Bhutto wanted what so many of us wish for - to see her children happy and married - to participate in all of the joys and wonders of life with her family and friends in the land that she loved. But still, she lifted her voice in the service of freedom and democracy - understanding her place in the family of things to be greater than just that of wife and mother and friend - noble callings in and of themselves - understanding her place in the family of this larger world community - calling not only for peace in her own land - but inspiring people all over the world to hear the callings that linger in each one of us - callings to speak up and out, forgetting for a moment the risk to ourselves, and leaning in, instead, to the lure of the world as it longs to fulfill its promise for each and every one of us.
In the face of this death, let us ask how we might challenge ourselves to go further in our work for justice than we've previously felt comfortable going - and may our answers be an offering to the legacy of this brave and visionary woman.
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