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Tehmina Durrani

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Tehmina Durrani in 1994


Tehmina Durrani (Urdu: تہمینہ درانی), born: 18 February 1953, is the daughter of a former Governor of State Bank of Pakistan and Managing Director of Pakistan International Airlines, S.U. Durrani and a grand-daughter of Sir Liaquat Hayat Khan, who was a brother of former Punjab Premier Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan. Her first book, My Feudal Lord, caused ripples in Pakistan's male-dominated society by describing her abusive and traumatic marriage with Ghulam Mustafa Khar, then Chief Minister and later Governor of Punjab and her experience of a feudal society. She is currently involved in the emancipation of women in Pakistan.[1]

Brief Life Sketch

An Afghan Pathan by descent, and born into an educated and influential family, Durrani was only 17, when she married Anees Khan, and they had one daughter, Tania. She divorced him in 1976 and then married Khar. In the process she had to give up the claim of her daughter's custody. It was Durrani's second marriage and the sixth marriage for Khar. The couple later divorced after 13 years during which they had four children, Nasiba, Nafisa, Ali and Hamza. After her divorce, Durrani wrote her autobiography called My Feudal Lord in 1991, detailing her marriage with Khar in addition to other issues. The book became an international bestseller very soon,[2] and depicts the gory details of her marriage, including the abuse inflicted on her by her powerful husband, a prominent political figure, leading it to be initially banned in Pakistan. The book narrates how Khar physically beat Durrani, kidnapped their children, had an affair with her youngest sister, and once forced her to strip naked, when she disobeyed his orders.[3] She argued in the book that the real power of feudal landlords like Khar is derived from the distorted version of Islam that is supported by the mullahs and maulvis. Khar later went on to marry Durrani's sister.[4]

Current Activities

Since 2005, Durrani is associated with a non-governmental organization that works for the social rehabilitation of women after abuse.[5] In 2001, Durrani publicly took on the caregiver role of Fakhra Yunas, the former wife of Bilal Khar, the son of Khar from his first marriage, after the former had been a victim of an acid attack allegedly at the hands of her husband who even refused to let her undergo treatment. Durrani arranged to take Yunas abroad, capturing media attention and spurring her commitment to bring Khar, convicted of the attack, to trial. Fakhra was initially denied a passport to leave Pakistan to undergo surgery, because the government feared that the news would soil the reputation of Pakistan. But later, under public mobilized mainly by Durrani, the government allowed her to leave Pakistan,[6] who was also successfully able to provide reconstructive surgery free-of-cost to Fakhra, courtesy of the Italian cosmetics firm Sant'Angelica.[7] The firm is now working in Pakistan for many such battered and abused women.[8] However, after twelve years of misery, Fakhra committed suicide on the 24th March 2012 and was buried in Karachi a day later.[9] Durrani resides in Lahore with her husband, Shahbaz Sharif, brother of Nawaz Sharif, the current Chief Minister of Punjab whom she married at a private but well attended ceremony in Dubai in 2003.[10][11][12] Upon divorcing Khar, she signed away all financial support, lost custody of her children, her name, social standing and was disowned by her parents.[13] Only when Khar re-married, she did regain custody of her four children.

Main Works

"My Feudal Lord" has been translated into 36 languages and received many awards and recognition overseas in recognition of the authoress' courage.[14] and she is regarded as a role model by many women in Pakistan.

Her second book, A Mirror to the Blind, is the biography of Abdul Sattar Edhi, Pakistan's renowned and highly decorated social worker, as narrated to her during the two years in which she accompanied him on his visits in the course of his daily life. The book was published by the National Bureau of Publications in 1996.[15]

Her third book, "Blasphemy", from 1998 marked her return to controversy, and was another success. In the novel she describes the secret lives of the Muslim clergy and spritual leaders or pirs. Durrani declares that the story is factual, with some names and events altered to protect the identity of the woman, who is at the center of the story. The book also delves into a critical approach to the tradition and practice of Nikah Halala, which she has highlighted through several cases resulting in humiliation and torture of Muslim women.[16] The book also made it into Pakistan's bestseller list.[17] She has thus been engaged in highlighting gender-based violence in Pakistan's rural and urban society.

References

  1. ^ Sending ripples in Pak society
  2. ^ [http://www.expressindia.com/news/ie/daily/19981023/29650064.html
  3. ^ The Evil That Men Do
  4. ^ Tehmina Durrani
  5. ^ Punjab's ex-CM Shahbaz Sharif confirms Marriage with Tehmina Durrani
  6. ^ Amnesty International Document - Pakistan: Insufficient protection of women
  7. ^ The Evil That Men Do
  8. ^ Help for Pakistan's acid attack victims
  9. ^ Fakhra: shunned in life, embraced in death
  10. ^ Shahbaz wedding: political fallout
  11. ^ Shahbaz Sharif Marries Tehmina
  12. ^ Shahbaz confirms marriage to Tehmina
  13. ^ My Feudal Lord - Tehmima Durrani Review
  14. ^ The Evil That Men Do
  15. ^ Tehmina Durrani
  16. ^ Blasphemy
  17. ^ Of pir power and peccadilloes: Blasphemy exposes the rot within

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