Gulalai Ismail’s campaigns to empower Pakistani girls have won her international awards and recognition as one of her country’s foremost activists.
But when she spoke out against sexual violence and disappearances allegedly carried out by the Army in northwestern Pakistan, her fortunes quickly changed.
The 32-year-old said she feared for her life. After four months on the run, she succeeded in eluding a vast hunt and has turned up in the U.S., where she is seeking asylum.
Ms. Ismail said she never sought to become an overseas dissident but sees a closing of the political space in Pakistan.
“I never wanted to leave Pakistan,” she told AFP in an interview in Washington. “I believe that I can better work towards democracy and civil supremacy and peace in Pakistan.”
But she concluded she would be more effective abroad, saying: “If I had ended up in prison and tortured for many years, my voice would have been silenced.”
Ms. Ismail believed she posed a special threat as a vocal woman. “When a man stands up, he is mostly against the State oppression. But when a woman stands up, she is fighting oppression on many levels — fighting cultural norms, fighting the patriarchy and the State oppression.”
