Asma Jahangir

1. The other side of Asma by Aitzaz Ahsan on March 05, 2018 in Dawn. 
Excerpt: 
Back in Pakistan and focusing primarily on running a family ghee mill in Lahore, the prince married a woman who would always live precariously and on the edge. But he never crossed her path. The entire Fazl-e-Ahmed family, including Tahir’s sister Nageen and her husband Ayaz (Jajji), remained, much against their grain, highly supportive. They sought to impose no constraints upon Asma. She had married into a law-fearing business family and brought with her the vigour and pugilistic character of her father, Malik Ghulam Jilani, a political jail bird. They could have perceived her as a bull in the Fazl-e-Ahmed china shop. But they did not.

2. She Radiated Friendliness on Both Sides of the Sub-Continental Divide: Amartya Sen on Asma Jahangir BY AMARTYA SEN in The Wire on 05/03/2018. 

Excerpt:

I have been extraordinarily privileged to have met Asma. I first met her when we were both members of a joint Indo-Pakistani initiative to engage the citizens of the two countries to talk more with each other (Asma was the co-chair of the group, along with the former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral on the Indian side). I was awestruck by the clarity of Asma’s mind as well as her boundless humanity and warmth. We had the chance to talk a great many times in many different places when we met (as we did frequently), but we had the most wonderful opportunity to talk endlessly when she and her wonderful husband, Tahir Jahangir, stayed with us at the Master’s Lodge of Trinity College in Cambridge. We were often joined by her younger daughter Sulema, also a lawyer. I learned a huge amount from Asma about how to think about one’s priorities and duties in the most complex of circumstances. One of the most fulfilling moments of my life came last year when Asma spoke at the London School of Economics, in a lecture named after me – I have not done anything to deserve it (I hasten to add) but the LSE has such an annual series. Asma explained to nearly a thousand students and teachers at the LSE how to fight injustice related to religious intolerance, using democratic means (a subject that seems to become more and more important across the world). Her ideas were buzzing around the LSE for many weeks.

3.  My friend Asma by I.A. Rehman on  February 18, 2018 in The News on Sunday. 

Excerpt:

1998 was a remarkably successful year in Asma’s life. This was the year that Asma gave a dazzling display of her lobbying skills. We were in the midst of a regional human rights conference when we received reports that the National Assembly had passed a bill for the enforcement of the religious code, similar to Ziaul Haq’s 9^th amendment that had been passed by the National Assembly but had lapsed due to the Junejo government’s failure to table it in the Senate. Within a few hours Asma persuaded the leaders of all opposition parties to block the measure in the Senate. The last one to fall in line was Akbar Bugti. He was asleep and woke up at midnight and immediately nodded concurrence. The bill was never sent to the Senate. It lapsed.

4. Subversive, even in death by Aima Khosa in The Friday Times, Issue: 16 Feb 2018. 

Excerpt:

As we all line up for prayer, it dawns on me – as I’m sure it does on many others – that Asma ji’s is the first funeral that we are attending in our lives as adult women. We did not bid her farewell at the house and stay behind, as is usually the case even when our close relatives die. Her memory is so powerful, so compelling and so subversive that she beckons us to break new ground – and we follow her much the same as we did when she walked amongst us.

5. Asma Jahangir: Through the Years BY SEPOY on FEBRUARY 14, 2018 in Chapati Mystery.

This piece lists "15 documents written across her lifetime that chronicle Jahangir’s greatest victories and most vulnerable defeats."
Excerpt:

The spirit of Asma Jahangir cannot be captured in mere platitudes or condemnations. She fought a lonely battle: carving an ideology for herself, she fiercely defended her work in the face of backlash from both liberals and conservatives. Her life must be read as a ceaseless struggle to ask the questions that few had the courage to ask. We must keep asking those questions.

— by Anish Gawande

6. Funeral bridges religious and ethnic divides by Marvi Sirmed FEBRUARY 14, 2018 in The Daily Times.
Excerpt: 
There were trans people, women, men, youngsters, older people, people descending from SUVs with their guards, people coming on motorbikes, as well as people pouring in on foot because public transport left them far from the venue owing to security arrangements. There were destitute women who had secured shelter because of Asma. There were activists who had spent lifetime in struggling for people’s rights, under Asma’s guidance and leadership. There were people whose lives she had changed by merely being there when they needed help. There were people who found meaning in their lives while being with her.

7. Condolences pour in for Asma Jehangir on Twitter |  The Hindu Net Desk |  FEBRUARY 11, 2018 in The Hindu.

Excerpt:

People from across the world mourned the sudden demise of Pakistan’s top lawyer and human rights activist Asma Jehangir on social media. Known as Pakistan's Iron Lady, Asma passed away on Sunday due to a cardiac arrest in Lahore.She was not only a symbol of bravery and strength for the people of Pakistan but also an inspiration for women across the globe.She headed the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and remained the Supreme Court Bar Association chairperson. She was also appointed as UN Rapporteur in the region during the 1990s. She remained in jail during the dictatorial rule of General Zia-ul Haq in 1983 for raising her voice for the democrats.

8. Asma Jahangir: The street fighter Saroop by Ijaz | Updated Feb 11, 2018 | in The Herald.

Excerpt:

Asma Jahangir’s exposure to public life happened at a very young age. On December 22, 1971, the military government of Yahya Khan detained Asma Jahangir’s father, Malik Ghulam Jilani, under martial law regulations. Malik Ghulam Jilani, a former civil servant and politician, was sent to jail in Multan after his detention. He sent his family a letter through a jail employee, listing possible grounds on which a petition could be filed for his release. Then only 18 years old, Asma Jahangir filed the petition at the Lahore High Court. “Courts were not new to me. Even before his detention, my father was fighting many cases. He remained in jail in Bannu. He remained in jail in Multan. But we were not allowed to go see him there. He did not want us to go there and see him. We always saw him in courts. So, for me, the court was a place where you dressed up to meet your father. It had a very nice feeling to it,” Asma Jahangir reminisces, lightheartedly.