Norton's Statement In Memory of Benazir Bhutto, the Woman (12/28/07)

Washington, DC--Congresswoman Eleanor Homes Norton (D-DC) today issued the following statement on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

"The assassination of Benazir Bhutto initially turned me to my longstanding concerns as a member of Congress about Pakistan, its nuclear arsenal, the al-Qaeda and Taliban forces that are especially prominent there, and hopes for a democratic Muslim nation that her return to Pakistan seemed to signal. However, upon reflection, I see Bhutto's assassination as more than the loss of a riveting political leader. Had she been elected, Benazir Bhutto, in her boldness as a secular Muslim political woman, might have set the stage for greater freedom for women in Muslim societies, as no outside forces could, in a world polarized between Muslim and secular societies. Bhutto was a flawed leader, with an undisguised appetite for political power, who was scarred, as well, by allegations and some evidence of corruption in her prior terms as prime minister. Yet, she took such enormous personal risks to regain power, my hope was that she would then not again have risked charges of corruption. However democracy is defined or refined to fit particular cultures, any form worthy of the name will ultimately require for women the freedom to live as equals in society that Bhutto displayed in her persona. With Bhutto gone, more than democracy in one country may be at risk. Benazir Bhutto was traditional enough to be elected, but boldly avante guard and instinctively feminist enough to be a leader of women and men, who might have begun the most difficult work facing Muslim countries--unburdening women from the world's oldest form of repression."