Spring Break
Cracking Bapsi
A Conversation with Bapsi Sidhwa
Interview by Samantha Cohen
Issue date: 6/1/08 Section: Spring 2008
I spoke with Bapsi Sidhwa just days after the untimely assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Sidhwa, who now resides in the United States, served on Bhutto's advisory committee for Women's Development in the mid-1990s. Among the issues we discussed were the implications of Bhutto's death on the upcoming Pakistani elections-which were subsequently delayed by the government until mid-February. Since then, Bhutto's party has won a majority of seats in the government, and its candidate for prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, has been sworn in to office. The Pakistani government, however, has had difficulty keeping the country united in the wake of militant uprisings.
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You spent some time working on Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's advisory committee for Women's Development. Talk a little about your experience with her.
Bhutto was more of a figurehead in this body and the nitty-gritty and momentum were left to the Committee. I don't blame her-Pakistan is a complex and difficult country to rule. However, during both her tenures Bhutto was an ineffective ruler. She gathered yes-men around her and was averse to advice. One expected her to try harder to remove the Zina (adultery) ordinance, but she never wrested enough strength or authority to do so. General Musharraf passed a resolution in the assembly two years back under the Protection of Women Act and freed hundreds of women rotting in jails because of false accusations of adultery by vengeful husbands, or brothers and fathers whom they had displeased. The Islamist members of the Assembly swore to repeal the Musharraf act.
What implications do you believe her assassination will have for Pakistan, not only in the upcoming elections, but in a broader political picture? And for women-particularly women in leadership-in Pakistan and elsewhere?
The U.S. asked General Musharraf to withdraw the criminal cases against her on the condition that she support Musharraf and give him democratic legitimacy. She agreed, but changed her stance and actively campaigned against him instead. It's a pity-they were both secular-minded and it would have given Pakistan a chance to become democratic. She took absurd risks in crowds, and the Taliban or Al Qaeda were almost certainly responsible for her death. Only the fundamentalists will benefit from the mayhem. They will do anything to get power and establish their own brand of Islamic Law. By and large the people in Pakistan are too sophisticated to allow for that.
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You spent some time working on Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's advisory committee for Women's Development. Talk a little about your experience with her.
Bhutto was more of a figurehead in this body and the nitty-gritty and momentum were left to the Committee. I don't blame her-Pakistan is a complex and difficult country to rule. However, during both her tenures Bhutto was an ineffective ruler. She gathered yes-men around her and was averse to advice. One expected her to try harder to remove the Zina (adultery) ordinance, but she never wrested enough strength or authority to do so. General Musharraf passed a resolution in the assembly two years back under the Protection of Women Act and freed hundreds of women rotting in jails because of false accusations of adultery by vengeful husbands, or brothers and fathers whom they had displeased. The Islamist members of the Assembly swore to repeal the Musharraf act.
What implications do you believe her assassination will have for Pakistan, not only in the upcoming elections, but in a broader political picture? And for women-particularly women in leadership-in Pakistan and elsewhere?
The U.S. asked General Musharraf to withdraw the criminal cases against her on the condition that she support Musharraf and give him democratic legitimacy. She agreed, but changed her stance and actively campaigned against him instead. It's a pity-they were both secular-minded and it would have given Pakistan a chance to become democratic. She took absurd risks in crowds, and the Taliban or Al Qaeda were almost certainly responsible for her death. Only the fundamentalists will benefit from the mayhem. They will do anything to get power and establish their own brand of Islamic Law. By and large the people in Pakistan are too sophisticated to allow for that.
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