This was first posted in January 2008.
The former prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated last month allegedly by Islamists for her conviction that secular democracy was the only answer for her troubled country.
She was considered an ally of the United States and many had put their faith in her for bringing democratic stability to Pakistan. As NPR wrote, we also like her because, "The Harvard and Oxford-educated Bhutto had become an icon in the West, which found it hard to resist the allure of the charismatic female leader of an otherwise male-dominated Islamic nation."
For as many supporters as Bhutto had you'll find double the number of people who doubt her place in history. William Dalrymple from the International Herald Tribune wrote that she was,
Dalrymple definitely provides a different picture, and now with her death, we may never know whether she was truly one of the "good guys" or not.
However, what still intrigues me about this woman, and mother of three, is that she knowingly put her life in jeopardy every day because she believed a secular, democratic Pakistan was the best choice for the future of Pakistan. She was a visionary who was determined to change her nation and ultimately alter the course of the world. Bhutto was a world changer.
In the United States today, we don't know what it means to live in oppression. As women, we can't comprehend a life where we are merely a possession or a piece of property that is owned by our father or husband. And as mothers, we've never experienced a time when are children were not afforded every opportunity to follow their own dreams, even something as common as marrying for love.
Our country was founded by world changers; men and women who believed in ideals that required the same passion and commitment as Benazir Bhutto. They fought and suffered and many paid the ultimate price with their lives for the very freedoms we have come to expect and take for granted.
In my prior post I closed with the question, 'What does Benazir Bhutto have in common with Politics for Moms'? The answer is actually another question: What do you believe in so passionately that you are willing to give your life for?
Now that doesn't mean you have to believe in say, literacy, so passionately you are willing to take a bullet for it. But maybe it means getting involved in your local soup kitchen, stuffing envelopes for your candidate of choice or becoming a mentor to the kid down the street.
I believe moms are born world changers. Even when we're sleep deprived and up to our armpits with dirty dishes, we still believe in the ideals of this country and we want those ideals to be around for generations to come.
Isn't that why you're visiting this blog? With your vote you want to make a difference? You want to have a voice. You want to be a world changer!
The former prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated last month allegedly by Islamists for her conviction that secular democracy was the only answer for her troubled country.
She was considered an ally of the United States and many had put their faith in her for bringing democratic stability to Pakistan. As NPR wrote, we also like her because, "The Harvard and Oxford-educated Bhutto had become an icon in the West, which found it hard to resist the allure of the charismatic female leader of an otherwise male-dominated Islamic nation."
For as many supporters as Bhutto had you'll find double the number of people who doubt her place in history. William Dalrymple from the International Herald Tribune wrote that she was,
"a natural autocrat who did little for human rights, a calculating politician who was complicit in Pakistan's becoming the region's principal jihadi paymaster while she also ramped up an insurgency in Kashmir that has brought two nuclear powers to the brink of war."
Dalrymple definitely provides a different picture, and now with her death, we may never know whether she was truly one of the "good guys" or not.
However, what still intrigues me about this woman, and mother of three, is that she knowingly put her life in jeopardy every day because she believed a secular, democratic Pakistan was the best choice for the future of Pakistan. She was a visionary who was determined to change her nation and ultimately alter the course of the world. Bhutto was a world changer.
In the United States today, we don't know what it means to live in oppression. As women, we can't comprehend a life where we are merely a possession or a piece of property that is owned by our father or husband. And as mothers, we've never experienced a time when are children were not afforded every opportunity to follow their own dreams, even something as common as marrying for love.
Our country was founded by world changers; men and women who believed in ideals that required the same passion and commitment as Benazir Bhutto. They fought and suffered and many paid the ultimate price with their lives for the very freedoms we have come to expect and take for granted.
In my prior post I closed with the question, 'What does Benazir Bhutto have in common with Politics for Moms'? The answer is actually another question: What do you believe in so passionately that you are willing to give your life for?
Now that doesn't mean you have to believe in say, literacy, so passionately you are willing to take a bullet for it. But maybe it means getting involved in your local soup kitchen, stuffing envelopes for your candidate of choice or becoming a mentor to the kid down the street.
I believe moms are born world changers. Even when we're sleep deprived and up to our armpits with dirty dishes, we still believe in the ideals of this country and we want those ideals to be around for generations to come.
Isn't that why you're visiting this blog? With your vote you want to make a difference? You want to have a voice. You want to be a world changer!
