LAHORE: Panelists advocate Ali Zafar and journalist Hamid Mir with moderator Marvi Sirmad discussed the struggle of Asma Jahangir for the freedom of expression.

She was known as the lioness of democracy, the voice of the voiceless, or even Joan of Arc, said Mr Zafar. “But her most apt description was from a former british prime minister who said that Asma was not just a woman of a movement – she was a movement herself.” Asma believed in the right to protest. She often spoke of a famous quotation ‘I may not agree with your opinon but I will to my death defend your right to speak of it.’

Her advocacy in court such as her father’s case and several blasphemy cases that even strong lawyers were afraid from taking up also came under discussion. When she represented MQM leader Altaf Hussain, she was faced with a lot of opposition from liberal quarters too. She said that till the constitution was alive, everyone had a right to be represented.

Mr Mir said she boldly told him one day that it was very apparent how democratic party leaders were slowly being attacked by the status quo. “She was uncompromising in her concepts and values, but at the same time, in other areas she was very flexible and adapted to the situation.”

He said that just before she passed away she was about to undertake a petition by the PFUJ. In 2016, he was part of a fact finding mission for the honour killing of a girl in Murree. Despite difficulties, Asma managed to get information from the women of the area, who told her only because of who she was, although they risked their lives by telling her the truth. She also risked her own life several times, including the time she went to Balochistan. She was attacked upon but nothing deterred her.In another session titled ‘Elusive Lives: Gender, Autobiography and the self in Muslim South Asia’, Siobhan T Lambert-Hurley and Daniel Majchrowicz discussed autobiographies of Muslim women of South Asia.

Siobhan said she had researched several autobiographies of Muslim women of South Asia. Siobhan said that she chose to research specifically the Muslim women because they tended to be more modest outwardly but tried to break through in various sectors, including education, film and theatre, as writers and poets, and even politicians. Muslim South Asia is widely characterized as a culture that idealizes female anonymity: women’s bodies are veiled and their voices silenced.

Siobhan gives even more voice to these women in her book who rejected taboos and who told their life stories in written autobiography form. She used materials dated from the sixteenth century to the present from all countries in South Asia – including present-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. An a session on ‘Global Warming’, moderated by travel journalist Salman Rashid, the discussion moved quickly to global warming and climatic change that Pakistan is facing.

Environmental lawyer Rafay Alam said that deforestation was inevitable the way population was rising haphazardly.

He stressed on more vertical expansion rather horizontal expansion.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2018