Thank you very much, honourable Chair and honourable members, for providing me this opportunity to come and record my statement over here regarding my experiences as a parliamentarian for the last 16 years.
I'm Asiya Nasir. I'm married with three children, and I come from the province of Balochistan, which is the southwest part of Pakistan. My political affiliation has been with the religious Islamic party Jamiat Ulema-e Islam. Perhaps I was the first Christian ever to join this Islamic party, as Islamic religious parties are thought to be a no-go area for the minorities of the faith-based population in Pakistan.
I started my career as an educationist, but coming from a political background, I was urgently motivated to join politics and, in 2002, was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan for the first time. I completed three consecutive terms as a parliamentarian there, voicing for the rights of my people.
I have a strong belief that God placed me there for some special reason, and the party I chose and often for which I have been criticized, not only by my people, but by other liberal and secular people.... Why would a Christian woman join a religious Islamic party? I'm still affiliated to that political party.
My objective was to mainstream the minorities living in Pakistan, because if you see the background of Pakistan, the minorities living in Pakistan have contributed largely to the creation and building up of Pakistan, educating the masses and in the health sector. Gradually that status has been declining. Our ancestors consented to be a part of Pakistan, believing we were going to have a life of respect and honour in Pakistan, but their dreams were not fulfilled.
My vision was to be a voice for the voiceless and help them voice their rights while living in an Islamic state. My objectives were to mainstream minorities in Pakistan by working for constitutional rights; for the socio-economic, educational and political uplift to eliminate all existing discrimination from society; to work for the suppressed communities with local organizations for the social, political and economic uplift; and to address all issues relating to mainstreaming for inclusive democracy. I strongly believe that no nation can progress until and unless it guarantees and ensures, politically, socially, economically and educationally, freedom of religion to all, and a life of equality and equity to all citizens. Keeping this in mind, these were my goals. I also set goals for the young population of the country.
Because I want to leave more time for questions, I want to come to what challenges I have been facing throughout my journey and struggle during these 16 or 17 years. It has not been an easy path for me to work with the religious party, because I started as an inexperienced politician with an Islamic religious party. The situation for me was also that of uncertainty.
Here I want to give appreciation and gratitude to my political party. Apart from being a mainstream right-wing religious party in the country, they always supported me. They encouraged me. They provided me the platform to voice for my people. I have been a very vocal and very vibrant speaker in Parliament. Each time I spoke out for the rights of my people, I had the fear that this time I would be removed from my party, but it never happened. On the contrary, my party always stood by my side and supported me. Whenever I spoke out, they said the statement I had given was their party policy. I think it was a great relief for the minorities living in Pakistan that a religious party supported them, which was thought to be a no-go area for minorities.
In 2012, one of the leading newspapers ranked me among the 100 most powerful women in Pakistan—women who shake Pakistan and who are shaping the fate of Pakistani women—after I gave a speech after the murder of minister Shahbaz Bhatti. I think the speech is being given to all the honourable members for your perusal. In this speech, I effectively addressed the struggles that minorities faced in a majority Islamic state.
My people know me very well for my bold speeches in Parliament, but it is not only the speeches or because I have been speaking out or standing up for my people; it is also because I have been participating very actively in the legislative business of Parliament.
Fourteen bills, particularly for the religious minorities, has been a record number for a minority member to move in Parliament. You can go through my CV and see references to some of these bills, including the women's protection bill, 2010;the domestic violence bill, 2008;the anti-women practices bill; a bill for an increase of seats for the minorities at the provincial and national levels; amendments in the harassment against women at the workplace bill; and the hate crimes bill.
I want to focus on the hate crimes bill, a very important bill that I moved in Parliament. We have observed and have experienced that many times the majority people, or a handful of people with an extremist mindset, are very biased and have discriminated against the minorities. At any time, they can go and burn out the residences or the assets of the minority people. It is not criminalized in our constitution. I just want to bring up that bill because hate crimes should be criminalized. Nobody should be discriminated against and/or subjected to bias on the basis of religion.
Besides that, in regard to amendments to the cybercrime bill on terrorist acts, two of my amendments were incorporated by the government as a part of its cybercrime bill.
Then there was the child rights protection bill, the minorities' access to higher education bill, and the national policy for interfaith harmony bill in 2018. When I come back to the challenges, I would refer to this policy and that it is very important to have collaborations and networks.
One of the networking groups is the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief. The Honourable David Anderson, who is chairing this group, is sitting here. I am one of the founding members of this International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief—or no belief—since 2014. This networking group has been very instrumental and very helpful in supporting and voicing the rights of the minorities living all over the world, no matter which faith they belong to.
That forum also motivated me to bring forth the national policy for interfaith harmony in Parliament, which was adopted by the cabinet. It was the first time ever that a national policy for interfaith harmony was drafted and adopted by the cabinet of Pakistan. It was a great achievement on the part of this networking group, and not only the networking group but I was also one of the panellists establishing the all-party group of parliamentarians for the freedom of religion in the Parliament of Pakistan. There were more than 60 members who were part of this caucus and who supported freedom of religion and interfaith harmony in Pakistan.
I want to come to the challenges. The situation of human rights in Pakistan is not very good, and it is even worse for women human rights defenders. They face challenges across the board and have to fight the status quo on all fronts: their families, the communities they work in and even fellow human rights defenders.
One of the challenges for me was non-acceptance. When I joined politics, it was an environment where it was very hard for men to accept women leaders. They always objected, asking why they should appease a woman political leader, or why they should follow a woman leader.
Another discrimination I felt was at the hands of my fellow human rights defenders and my fellow ministers, several women who were working for human rights. I was always objected to in terms of being part of the religious party. They discriminated against me and engaged in bias against me. I was often objected to for covering my head, with them thinking that this is Muslim dress and that Christian women should not dress like this, things such as that.
The part I chose was more challenging, more difficult, remaining myself in a religious party, working and trying to change the mindset of the people. Often we speak of needing to mainstream the minorities. This is how we can mainstream the parties. It was very important for the minorities within the party to join the religious parties, because the religious parties in Pakistan are very influential and they have great impact on a large population of Pakistan.
We definitely have security issues. In the last two decades, Pakistan has faced a lot of problems, including security. Discrimination is there. Economic marginalization is there. The governmental policies, many times they hit the people there.
In the end, I must say that I'm not the only woman who is striving hard and struggling for the rights of my people; there are other women along with me. I would like you all to watch a short video clip for one or two minutes that will demonstrate the struggle of the women, including myself, in Pakistan. I must say that in the end, I just want to end with one sentence. Today sitting before you is the true face of a Pakistani woman: strong, courageous, committed, untiring, aware of her rights, abiding by her cultural and religious values, paving a path through the challenges, determined to bring prosperity and a better future for the coming generations.
Thank you very much once again.