DesiLit Daily

« Call for Submissions | Main | Review of Rishi Reddy's debut collection of short stories »

February 12, 2008

Excerpt from Benazir Bhutto's posthumous book

posted by Soniah Kamal

The Times Online UK has a moving excerpt from Benazir Bhutto’s book Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy & the West. Perhaps an eight year exile did mature Benazir and she would have, had she made it into office for the third time, proved to be a leader truly working in the best interests of Pakistan nationally and internationally. It is strange reading this particular piece which enumerates who might want to kill her, her decision to return to Pakistan never the less, and her reaction to the first assassination attempt as well as the reactions of her husband and kids (i.e. her daughter waking up to an insensitive SMS by a never the less concerned friend asking ‘ is your mother all right?”) It is chilling to read how the suspected ‘bomb’ in this attempt is a baby strapped with explosives– whose baby was it? Was it a baby whose mother was forced to give it up or did she do so with pride? Was it a unwanted baby? Often these days one is forced to ask which sort of person willingly risks death for the sake of a cause– Benazir’s cause was a democratic Pakistan and her decision to return home and trust in God admirable, courageous, fanatic…

from the excerpt:

My husband, watching the live coverage on television in Dubai, begged me not to expose myself directly to the crowd from the top of the truck. I said no, that I must be front and greet my people…

I had been traumatized by my father’s arrest, imprisonment and murder, and I know that such mental scars are permanent. I would have done anything to spare my children the same pain that I had undergone – and still feel – at my father’s death. But this was one thing I couldn’t do; I couldn’t retreat from the party and the platform that I had given so much of my life to…

The burning twin towers have become a dual metaphor for both the intra-Islamic debate about the political and social values of democracy and modernity and the looming potential for a catastrophic showdown between Islam and the West. And for both of these epic battles, my homeland of Pakistan has become the epicentre – the ground zero, if you will – of either reconciliation or disaster. rest here

Posted by Soniah Kamal at February 12, 2008 06:33 PM

Comments

Posted by: Amrit Hallan - Content Blog at February 24, 2008 11:14 AM

Post a comment