Tag: Gulalai Ismail

Gulalai Ismail reports that her father has been abducted.

A Pakistani human rights activist who recently fled the country to avoid harassment by security agencies says her father has been abducted by unidentified men.

In a tweet Thursday, Gulalai Ismail said Mohammad Ismail was picked up outside a courthouse in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Her father’s lawyer Fazal Khan confirmed the incident, saying he saw men in plainclothes detain his client after a case relating to an NGO known as “Aware Girls.”

Gulalai Ismail recently went into hiding, then surfaced last month in the U.S. seeking asylum.

Human rights activists in Pakistan are often arrested on suspicion of links with so-called anti-state elements.

Aka being too liberal, too feminist, too secular. That’s the problem with theocracy, isn’t it, anything you do that strikes someone as being in conflict with the state religion can get you arrested or worse. Pakistan’s version of Islam is not keen on human rights activists who think girls and women should not be denied human rights.

Gulalai tweets:

International Federation for Human Rights published urgent appeal on the abduction of my father and human rights activist @ProfMIsmail from Peshawar High Court premises. #ReleaseProfIsmail

The Alliance for Peacebuilding and Peace Direct express their deep concern over the abduction of Professor Muhammad Ismail, the father of exiled peacebuilding leader Gululai Ismail, in Peshawar, Pakistan, earlier today.

OMCT (World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) urgent appeal against the abduction of renowned human rights activist @ProfMIsmail; my father. OMCT asks Pakistan to conform to the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

Who can better understand the pain of relatives being persecuted than our sister Wrranga who lost her brother Arman Luni to the brutal police state but justice is yet not in sight for Arman Luni. #JusticeForArmanLuni #JusticeForPTMActivists

Wrranga Luni tweets:

I strongly condemn the abduction of Professor Ismail. Here all activists that speak against HR violations & want peace in Pashtun land are criminals, facing threats, kidnapping & killings, but terrorists & assassins of hundreds enjoy impunity & roam free.

#ReleaseProfIsmail

Pass it on.

Gulalai Ismail has escaped Pakistan and is free in New York.

A Pakistani human rights activist who spoke out against the army has fled the country after months in hiding.

Gulalai Ismail is now in the US, having eluded a country-wide hunt and a travel ban imposed by Pakistan’s authorities.

They accuse Ms Ismail of “anti-state activities” and “inciting violence”.

The activist said she was forced to run as she feared for her life, telling AFP news agency: “If I had ended up in prison and tortured for many years, my voice would have been silenced.”

Her father, Muhammad Ismail, told BBC Urdu that Ms Ismail had six cases filed against her in the Pakistani courts. And that she had decided her life was in serious danger.

“Gulalai decided to leave the country at this time because she realised that her life is under threat and she has to leave the country otherwise anything could happen to her,” he said.

Ms Ismail added in a statement: “The last few months have been awful. I have been threatened, harassed, and I am lucky to be alive.”

She reported the beginning of that awful on Facebook, but then she went quiet. I’m so glad she’s out.

For many years, Ms Ismail has been an outspoken critic of human rights abuses, especially against women and girls.

However, it appears she attracted officials’ attention in the last year, particularly after she began to advocate for women alleging they had been victims of sexual abuse during an army crackdown near the border with Afghanistan.

She herself was alerted to the allegations when a boy came to her to complain about his mother’s treatment at the hands of security services.

“Dozens of women had come to tell us that the incident of sexual harassment was not unique,” she told AFP in Washington this week. “It is systematic. It had been happening for years.”

Pakistan is not one of the better countries to be a woman.

Speaking of real telling truth to power…Gulalai Ismail an hour ago:

3 years ago when I received Common Wealth Youth Award for Democracy, Dr. Arif Alvi now the president of Pakistan was proud of my work. I was appreciated by many in the power corridors. Today, I’ve been framed as anti-state for the very same work and very same narrative and been put on ECL; this is the cost one has to pay for showing solidarity to local Pashtun’s Resistance movements against terrorism.

The Independent has a profile of Gulalai and Saba Ismail.

Saba Ismail woke up in her Brooklyn home to a voicemail from her sister, Gulalai. She was calling to say she had been apprehended by Pakistan officials upon landing in Islamabad after a flight from London. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told Gulalai she had been put on an exit control list (ECL) and was going to be immediately detained. “The space is shrinking and closing out spaces for civic voices, voices who are raising for peace,” Gulalai says in the message recorded as she was being detained.

Speaking to The Independent later Gulalai says: “I am a well known human rights activist and I have always worked for countering extremism, for preventing young people from joining militant organisations, for peace-building, for inclusion of women in peace-building and I have always spoke for human rights of women in Pakistan.

“Adding my name on the ECL so that I can not leave Pakistan is an attack… on my constitutional right to speak up, my right to freedom of expression, my right to freedom of thought.

“Adding the name of a well renowned human rights activist in the ECL is a black spot on the character of Pakistan,” she says.

Pakistan has questions to answer, the Indy notes.

Raised in northwest Pakistan, Saba and Gulalai Ismail grew up in a progressive family where they, among their other siblings, were taught about human rights and gender equality, predominantly from their father Muhammad Ismail, a teacher and activist.

But outside of their home they saw a different world.

“Since I was born I have seen the differences in the way people treat their daughters than their sons,” 30-year-old Saba told The Independent. “Inside, outside, in schools – I saw that difference from a very young age.”

Although seeing gender inequality on a daily basis, there was one particular moment in her teenage years that still stands out for Saba.

“When my cousin was about 12 years old, she really wanted to become a pilot. One day she was told she can’t go to school anymore because she’s getting married to a man 15 years older than her, so she had to discontinue her education the very next day.

“I saw my male cousins going to school, continuing their education, and I thought, ‘she wants to be a pilot, and she’s not able to go to school, even though she wants to. She has to get married instead.’ That really sparked questions in mine and my sister’s minds.”

So the sisters started Aware Girls in 2002.

The seed of fighting injustice that was planted at such a young age has continued to grow throughout the lives of these two women. Saba spoke at the White House in 2017 about peace-building processes, she shared a panel with Melinda Gates and has regularly consulted for the UN. Gulalai too has worked with numerous organisations, winning the International Humanist of the Year Award and the Anna Politkovskaya award for campaigning against religious extremism. She was also previously named as one of 100 Leading Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine. Her passionate TED talk examines growing pressures of religious extremism and the non-violent ways of combating it.

Gulalai on Facebook two hours ago:

Dear Friends, As you know because of my over a decade work on human rights and political activism my name has been put on ECL and my passport has been confiscated. People all over Pakistan did online protests against my detention using hashtag #ReleaseGulalaiIsmail, because of the online public pressure I was released on interim bail. Here’s a petition asking for the return of my passport and removing my name from ECL- please sign the petition by opening the link and entering your name, country, and email address. I need your signatures to help me get back my passport and get myself off the ECL.

If you don’t know me and want to know more about the situation or myself, you can read this article [which is the Indy article linked and quoted above].

Link to Petition [hosted by the IHEU]

I’ve just signed.

More from RAW in WAR:

Binalakshmi Nepram, a threatened Indian human rights activist from the state of Manipur, and the 2018 #AnnaPolitkovskayaAward winner expressed her outrage at the arrest and persecution of Gulalai Ismail by the Pakistani authorities. She said:

“South Asia Under Siege ~ After crackdown on NGOs, journalists, activists, intellectuals, universities in India, neighbouring Pakistan follows suit with the arrest today of a brave woman activist Gulalai Ismail ~ The work of many like hers is to deepen democracy, for peace & justice, yet the AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES fear their work. Gulalai is just out on bail but may be detained again and her passport has been taken by the authorities. Gulalai is the recipient of the 2017 #AnnaPolitkovskayaAward and someone whose workshop Malala Yusufzai attended, while she was still in her home country.”

Reach All Women in WAR on Facebook:

Brave Pashtun activist & 2017 #AnnaPolitkovskayaAward winner Gulalai Ismailwas arrested yesterday at Islamabad airport on charges of participating in and speaking at a peaceful demonstration in August 2018. She was kept in detention all day long and released on pre-arrest bail in the evening. Gulalai appeared in court today and the bail was confirmed, amidst fears that she would be re-arrested. Her passport was taken by the Pakistani authorities and was not returned to her and Gulalai’s name continues to be on an Exit Control List, as she is banned from foreign travel. RAW in WAR: Reach All Women in WAR called on Imran Khan (official) and his Government to ensure the safety and security of human rights activist Gulalai Ismail and to stop the persecution against her. All criminal charges against Gulalai – for peacefully exercising her right to freedom of expression, should be dropped immediately and Gulalai’s passport should be returned to her. The Pakistani authorities should ensure Gulalai’s name is taken off the Exit Control List and she is allowed to travel internationally. #RefusingToBeSilenced #JusticeForGulalai #FreeGulalaiIsmailAwareGirls Pak

My dear friend and colleague @Gulalai_Ismail has been detained in Islamabad returning home from the UK where she was attending humanist meetings with us. Dear Pakistan, please #ReleaseGulalaiIsmail – she is a brave woman of whom any nation should be proud https://t.co/fXgp7T9eC5

— Andrew Copson (@andrewcopson) October 12, 2018

.@IHEU board member Gulalai Ismail was arrested at Islamabad Airport today on her return from the UK. We are campaigning for her release #ReleaseGulalaiIsmailhttps://t.co/24LimWVHJo

— Humanists UK (@Humanists_UK) October 12, 2018

pic.twitter.com/wrdb7gkYb3

— Humanists UK (@Humanists_UK) October 12, 2018

Today our colleague @Gulalai_Ismail was detained in Pakistan upon returning home from the UK. She's now been bailed but is still facing prosecution & her right to travel has been removed. It is vital that her full rights are restored #ReleaseGulalaiIsmail https://t.co/24LimWVHJo

— Humanists UK (@Humanists_UK) October 12, 2018

Humanists UK has more:

Update, 2 pm: Gulalai has now been released on bail, but her passport has not been returned to her, and she is still unable to leave Pakistan because she is on an ‘exit control list’. Humanists UK is now focused on ensuring she is not prosecuted for any crime and regains the right to travel.

Original story: Pakistani human rights campaigner Gulalai Ismail was arrested at Islamabad Airport today on her return from the UK. Humanists UK has joined other humanist organisations from across the world in calling for her immediate release.

Gulalai was in London to attend the Board meeting of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), of which she is a director. She also attended Humanist UK’s Conservative Party fringe event as a guest speaker alongside Crispin Blunt MP and Humanists UK’s Chief Executive Andrew Copson.

But Pakistan has theocratic tendencies and it doesn’t like to see its people speaking at humanist conferences.

Among other human rights work, Gulalai is the founder of Aware Girls, an organisation which works to empower and educate women and girls on rights and leadership in Pakistan, and mentored Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, whom she also visited when in the UK last week.

That’s how I first learned of her: on Twitter, the day Malala was shot.

Humanists UK Chief Executive and President of IHEU Andrew Copson said:

‘We are gravely concerned for our dear friend and colleague. Gulalai is a brave humanist and human rights activist, whose tireless efforts for peace and human rights have earned her respect around the world. Pakistan should be proud to have produced such a daughter and we urge the authorities to release her, return her passport, and restore her freedom to travel.

‘We have written today to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Pakistan High Commission in London urging them to support Gulalai’s urgent release and offer her the full protection of the law.’

Crispin Blunt MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, said:

‘The news that human rights activist Gulalai Ismail was arrested in Pakistan on her return from the United Kingdom is a truly appalling apparent reflection on Pakistan and its attachment or otherwise to democracy, freedom of expression and the rule of law and a bitter disappointment to those of us who had such expectations of Imran Khan’s new administration. Has the education he received at the University of Oxford counted for nothing, quite apart from cricket’s lessons in fair play?

‘Gulalai has been a strong advocate of human rights, including building democracy, empowerment of women and girls, and countering violent extremism. I had the pleasure to speak alongside her just eleven days ago at Conservative Party Conference at a meeting of Humanists UK.

‘I am beyond concerned that such a prominent human rights advocate should be arrested on her return to Pakistan when she had made such a positive impression abroad, as well as winning admiration for her extraordinary courage.

‘I have written today to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Pakistan High Commission in London urging them to support Gulalai’s urgent release and offer her the full protection of the law.’

Gulalai with Malala earlier this week.