In Pakistan, people familiar with Durrani’s work compare her to Princess Diana, whose philanthropic efforts were noted across the world. Fakhra's son Noman continues to study at school in Rome, and remains under the supervision of an Italian family and myself," Durrani said. “I received her coffin draped in the Italian and Pakistani flags at Karachi, where Edhi sahib at Edhi Home Kharadar led her funeral prayers. She tragically succumbed to the agony of her existence and committed suicide on 17 April 2012. In Rome, Fakhra Younus underwent 30 major surgeries in nine years, at the expense of the Italian Government. "Finally, after five grueling months, with the support of the media and the public pressure it ignited, the government issued identification papers for the victims to travel."ĭurrani helped arrange for Younus to receive treatment in Italy. “The only sanctuary I could provide them was my own home, where my children, my staff and I were terrorised with life threats and acid attacks, while I confronted the criminals and fought the ‘laws' of an ‘unlawful' military government,” Tehmina recounts. However, nothing could stop her from helping Younus.
Durrani knew she could face wrath of influential attackers if she dared to stand by the victim. Younis, a dancing girl from Karachi's Napier Road area, was allegedly attacked by Bilal Khar, the son of Punjab’s former governor Ghulam Mustafa Khar.
In 2002, a year after launching Ana Hadjra Labaek, Durrani publicly spoke out for the rights of Fakhra Younas, a victim of an acid attack, and her five-year-old son Noman. Two obstacles need to be crossed, and the very first was the fear of change that will disturb the present balance," Durrani says. Until the Quran is not re-interpreted in a manner that does justice to its original intention, women will remain subjugated, not only by men but also by women conditioned by the patriarchal construction of mainstream Islam. However long the issue has been debated, the quest for a solution remains. “It is redundant to state that the current condition of Muslim women, especially in terms of the self-image they have constructed - consonant with the dominant image of a bearded and turbaned Islam - is dismal. women will remain subjugated, not only by men but also by women conditioned by the patriarchal construct of mainstream Islam, until the Quran is not re-interpreted in a manner that does justice to its original intention.” A document describing the movement reads: "Indeed, at that time it was futuristic to believe that women empowered with an Islamic symbol as proof of their Islamic rights, could move towards a peaceful transition to Islam's original intention through ijtehad. In 2001, she launched a movement called Ana Hadjra Labaek. No one who needs help is turned away from its doors. “I found Tehmina Durrani to be an incredibly brave woman, who opted to serve the people of Pakistan and managed to build her own identity - beyond the shadows of the Sharif family,” says Ansar Burney, a social worker.ĭurrani works with a team of volunteers at the Foundation's headquarters in Lahore. Since that time, Durrani emerged as one of Pakistan's leading human rights activists. She also founded the Tehmina Durrani Foundation. It was translated into 39 languages and became a best-seller. It detailed her abusive and traumatic marriage to Ghulam Mustafa Khar, then the chief minister and later, governor of Punjab. Tehmina received tremendous attention when her autobiography, My Feudal Lord, was published in 1991. But she chose to forge an identity of her own. Instead, she chose to focus on social activism and reform.ĭurrani played an important role in her husband's political success (he is the younger brother of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif). As the wife of Punjab’s Chief Minister Mian Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif, Tehmina could have chosen to live a life of leisure. Throughout her life, Durrani has been something of a rebel. Sir Liaqat Hyat Khan himself was the brother of Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, a pre-1947 Punjabi Indian statesman and leader. From her mother's side, Tehmina is the granddaughter of Nawab Sir Liaqat Hayat Khan, of the Khattar tribe a prime minister of the former princely state of Patiala for eleven years.
Lahore: Among the most powerful feminist voices in Pakistan today is that of Tehmina Durrani.ĭurrani's father - Shahkir Ullah Durran - was the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, and the managing director of Pakistan International Airlines while her mother, Samina Durrani, was a homemaker.