Benazir Bhutto: From the Oxford Union to her Last Rally in Rawalpindi

The world is debating the political fallout from Benazir Bhutto's assassination -- from fear of chaos in Pakistan to the impact of her death in Iowa. There is already no shortage of analysis about the national security implications of her death, but I want to write about the young woman I met in England before she became a player on the world stage.

She was at Oxford. I was at Cambridge. And by a strange coincidence I became president of the Cambridge Union and she became president of the Oxford Union. The anomaly of two foreign women heading the two unions meant that we ended up debating each other around England on topics ranging from British politics to broad generalities about the impact of technological advance on mankind.

When I checked my blackberry this morning at 5:28 am LA time there was an e-mail from our news editor Katharine Zaleski: "Benazir Bhutto killed by bombing." Just as the news was filled with the details of her death, my mind was filled with how full of life she had been every time I had seen her, including the last time in 1998 when she came to my home in Los Angeles for a dinner (which Harry Shearer, also there, wrote about). She was in exile, her husband in jail, and she was separated from her children. But still, there was an incredible life force about her, a sense that no matter what life brought her way, whether a tough debating argument, or exile, or her father's death by hanging, or the deaths of her two brothers -- she could deal with it, and she would prevail. Until the rally in Rawalpindi.

Three years earlier, I had seen her at the height of her power and fullness of life when she was staying at Blair House in Washington, DC as the visiting prime minister of Pakistan -- the first woman prime minister in the Muslim world. She had her third child with her and took me to her bedroom to meet her. Then she sat on the bed with her baby in her arms while we laughed about our lives on the debating circuit, and talked about her life now. (Including how much she loved her husband. She was trying to convince me that even though it was a marriage arranged by her mother, she had fallen in love with him, as if she had spotted him herself across a crowded room.) She had arrived at Oxford from Harvard, where she had gone at 16 after her convent school in Karachi. But wherever she was, she was at home because she was always at home in her own skin.

I wrote a book about fearlessness last year, long before the rally in Rawalpindi, where she went against everyone's advice and despite the fact that there had already been a failed attempt at her life. She was fearlessness epitomized. Many will debate her political successes and failures, her personal probity in public office, the charges of corruption against her and of course the national security implications of her death, but for now I'm just filled with a profound sadness about the end of a woman that was always brimming with life. I asked her to blog before she returned to Pakistan and blog she did. Here's a portion of what she wrote this fall:

I long ago realized that my personal life was to be subjugated to my political responsibilities. When my democratically elected father, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was arrested in 1977 and subsequently murdered, the mantle of leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party, our nation's largest, nationwide grassroots political structure, was suddenly thrust upon me. It was not the life I planned, but it is the life I have. My husband and children accept and understand that my political responsibilities to the people of Pakistan come first, as painful as that personally is to all of us. I would like to be planning my son's move to his first year at college later this month, but instead I am planning my return to Pakistan and my party's parliamentary election campaign.

I didn't choose this life. It chose me.

Arianna Remembers Benazir Bhutto on Larry King:

Read more reactions from HuffPost bloggers on Benazir Bhutto's assassination

Comments

[starwars]

I too lament her loss at the hands of an assassins bullet but I cannot think of anything significant that she did for her country. The words most commonly used to describe her in the western media now are elegant, beautiful, charismatic. She may have been all those and even courageous, but a true leader she was not. She also had the arrogance and dictatorial tendencies that her father had who was a democrat in name only, and was singlehandedly responsible for the dismemberment of Pakistan,so he could be primeminister and not Mujiburrehman of the national awami party of then East Pakistan who had won the majoriy vote.

[gems]

Hi Arianna,
I know this is totally off the subject. I want to wish you a great new year to you and your family and the best for 08. I'm also hoping we change gears for the better with our political troubles we are facing. No more wars for 08. Bring our troops home.
Gemma

[ehsan]

You did well to remember your friend Benazir Bhutto.She was like her father a brave girl, beautiful,highly educated and fiery young political leader but located in a geography where military has ruled for over forty years. Both her father and she herself were truly cut to be political leaders and darling of their poor masses.In a situation of military rule with extra-territorial loyalties,however,such individuals and political leaders as Bhuttos, cannot hope to survive to do good and justice by their people.Shame isnt it.Both the father and daughter,Bhuttos died young and at the hands of rulers who are inherently disloyal to their country and the oath taken,dishonest in the performance of their duties for which they are paid from the taxes,not competent to perform jobs assigned either by their own people or by their stupid foreign patrons. Inherently cowardly and living by violence against their own un-armed citizens these rulers are hated.we curse these Men on the Horse Back and their ugly Patrons,the sense-less Imerialists located seven seas accross.

[MAX1]

And yet, why can't we remember her interview on AlJazeeraEnglish where she mentions who killed OBL?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO8B6fpFSQ

Funny how selective memory serves the selective information channels. Why, in just a column over, OBL s plotting a new movie. WHY THE SELECTIVE TRUTHS AND NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH?

WHO DOES THAT SERVE?

.

[youcannotbeserious]

when I saw her beauty I was struck how smart, educated and questioned why, such beauty should be in the dirty game of politics when just on looks alone her influence could have been felt the fashion pages of Vogue. She was apparently as liberated as she could be among the Muslim women.

Fearlessness and Muslim, a paradox in the Muslim women's world. A sad way to end the year.

[Liberty14]

This is one of the saddest moments in the history of the Middle East. Benazir Bhutto's assination is one more blow to the freedom of women in Muslim societies. Radical Muslims treat their women as we in the Western World treat our livestock. The world became a sadder place with the assination of
Benazir Bhutto. Arianna at least you were blessed with having known Benazir Bhutto. There are people and then there are difference makers in the world and she was and still is a difference maker in the Middle East. May her spirit live on and make a difference in the Middle East of radical beliefs and intolerance.

[Diana9]

Arianna, there is a difference between fearlessness and recklessness. Bhutto reminded me of Alexander Pope's famous saying: "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

[Brujos1]

"Fearlessness" or foolishness? This can apply either to the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto or to current U.S. policy in the Arab/Muslim world.

[loki]

I am starting to feel like Im one of the few people in the world who had not had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Bhutto, as everyone is speaking or writing about her and their friendship with her. I wish I could have, she appears to be have been a very great person. Unfortunately she will not be able to attempt to help her country, and it appears that with the cover ups and abruptness that the crime scene and the lack of examination of her body before burial, and the massive amount of "conspiracy " stories flooding the press, whoever did this is covering their tracks well and will most likely never be exposed.

[Rushing]

How terribly sad and forseeable! A beautiful light has been snuffed out and we sat back and watched it happen. We warned the Pakistani government that it was coming, but they didn't do anything. What did we expect? Why didn't we do more?

This only adds insult to injury. Our government has played a key role in extending chaos in the Muslim world from Europe to China. What did we the people expect?

The CIA told the Pakistani secret police, who created the Taliban,that al-Quada(Taliban ally) planned to attack moderate politicians. Somehow they didn't pay attention. Maybe our government didn't pay attention.

[Grulg]

A fine fine tribute to a complex, gifted leader. I'm sorry she's gone too-though you knew this could very well happen. I point the finger at Musharref just because he deserves it and you know he's happier because she's gone. Pakistan is a lesser place w/ her loss I am sure.

[Orikinla]

Ms. Arianna,
Please, can you reach Begum Nusrat Ispahani?
Benazir's mother is the best person to interview on the circumstances surrounding the assassination of her daughter.

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is more than meets the eye of the average American or non-Pakistani. But most of the Americans are jumping to erroenous and ambiguous conclusions from their shortsighted knowledge of the political history of Pakistan.

How can American presidential candidates use the war in Iraq to politicize the assassination of Ms. Benazir Bhutto?

There were political assassinations and bomb blasts in Pakistan even before 9/11.

If you can reach her mother, an interview with her would be more enlightening than all the news reports and accusations I have read so far.

[longislandlol]

Beautifully written tribute-- and now our country and its voters must also follow suit and become fearless and brave as we enter into a new beginning in political and world history-- the election of President Barack Obama... time for brand new beginnings in our incredibly fractured nation....

[bobh]

Benazir's fatal mistake was in not realizing that everything Bush and Rice do turns to shit. They destroy through their callous incompetence everything and everyone they touch. In this case, it was their lack of concern about ensuring her security.

[factanonverba]

Arianna, I appreciate the fact that Ms. Bhutto was a friend of yours and as such you have my condolences. And yet I feel that despite Ms. Bhutto's many talents and accomplishments, it is hard for me to overlook the nexus of corruption that she permitted during her two tenures as Prime Minister. We are all imperfect beings no doubt but what galls me is this belief that somehow Ms. Bhutto was somehow the last best hope for Pakistan. She was a failed Prime Minister. It was under her watch that the Afghan Muhajedeen became the Taliban. She failed to reign in the ISI and allowed it to blossom into a state sponsor of terrorism. And there was all that corruption of her husband and her cronies. She talked democracy but succumbed to rule by decree. It is not easy to write briefly on Pakistan which is a riddle wrapped up in a mystery enveloped in an enigma. But Pakistan is an artificial state, a legacy of colonialism, and one with the sixth largest population on the planet and nuclear weapons to boot and the most fertile ground for Islamic extremism. Its madrassas produce the minions that are parcel post of al-Qaeda. It may be that Ms. Bhutto tried her best and failed but while we should celebrate her accomplishments we should also recognize that she, like of us, are imperfect. But she lead a country and it is hard to let pass her enormous failure to curb and control the corruption that began in her bed chamber. Perhaps it was the world into which she was born, Pakistan was born corrupt and noxious, but as you well know we are capable of confronting our inner demons and being more than we once were. Your journey is the incredible one, hers in the end a lament of what might have been had she really dared to change Pakistan when she actually had power.

You have my deepest sympathies on the loss of your friend.

facta non verba
San Francisco, CA