Benazir Bhutto

Thursday December 27th, 2007. I remember this date as most of us would birthdays or any national holiday. I woke up some 3.5 hours away from home at 11am shivering from the cold and alone in large house. I headed towards the kitchen to make a pot of tea and turned on the TV as a substitute for company. The gas flames provided such much needed heat to my blue nails and cramping hands. And as my body began to warm up, i began to to hear what was echoing from CNN. Something about an assisination....someone in a hospital and Bhutto. Its funny that your mind can put the pieces together but actually accepting what your mind concludes takes much longer. I ran over towards the set and cranked up the volume because even your ears can play tricks on you. "Benzir Bhutto sucuumbs to her wounds...Benazir Bhutto has been assisinated."

Rewind 19 odd years ago to 1988-1989 in a different setting and I can remember first hearing her name on TV. First hearing of a woman who became prime minister in the country that was once part of India. The woman who was leading a Muslim nation in the same vein that Indira had led a predominatly Hindu India at the start of the decade. Here in the US, sat this young impressionable naive girl thinking to herself, "Wow, if countries like India and Pakistan can elect female leaders, its only a matter of time before my country, the USA will do so too!" I remember how excited I was at the idea. I remember hoping that she was a better woman than Indira, who had massacred thousands of Sikhs at the Golden Temple during her term. I remember wondering if there were any minority communities in Pakistan, wondering if other religions were represented in Pakistan. Wondering and hoping she would unite her country and not divide it as Indira had.

Benazir Bhutto would be in and out of the news many times with her signature chunni covering her head as I grew up. She was not my hero or my role model, she represented something more important. I will always remember that brief moment in time when she gave me hope for my own country. Hope.