Heroes for a Better World

Asma Jahangir
(1952-)

Pakastani Human Rights Activist
1995 Ramon Magsaysay Award
1995 Martin Ennals Human Rights Award Winner
1999 Human Rights First Award
2000 Prize For Freedom
1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005

birthdate: January 27
birthplace:
Lahore, Pakistan

Asma Jilani Jahangir is a Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist who has served as a United Nations Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights since 1998. She has been involved in human rights issues for much of her life -- her father, a former colonel in the Pakistani army, spent years in prison and under house arrest for opposing military dictatorships, and Asma began protesting at a young age against the military regime in Pakistan. In 1980 Asma Janhangir and her sister Hina Jilani organized the first all-female law firm in Pakistan and worked to defend the rights of Pakistani women. In 1986 she helped to found the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent group of lawyers and activists who work to protect Pakistani citizens against some of the many injustices in her society, such as women who are imprisoned after being raped, or women whose families try to murder them when they leave abusive husbands; death sentences by stoning for blasphemous statements; and working for the release of prisoners who arrested and tortured illegally. In 1995 Asma Jahangir was honored with the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders as well as the Ramon Magsaysay award for "greatness of spirit shown in service of the people" and in 2003 she was featured by Time Magazine as one of Asia's most noteworthy heroes. In 2005 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as part of the 1000 Women for Peace project.


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