Benazir Bhutto

It is a horrifying job position -- leader of the opposition, the People's Party of Pakistan. Benazir must have known how dangerous it would be to re-enter this world of warring factions, where modern concepts of democracy battle ancient patriarchal religious behavior. Benazir's party was US-backed, which no doubt added to the risk she was taking by returning to her native land. But she also represented something else, a more secular strain of philosophy that grew within the educated Pakistani class during the era of British influence/interference.

I am very taken by her photographs, now sadly on display everywhere. Benazir radiated everything that most Muslim women are not allowed to be. She had education, power and position. By all accounts, she was not so perfect, and like just about every world leader, elected or otherwise in power, she used her position to get ahead personally. Or she allowed her husband to benefit, which is just as bad as doing it for herself. However, she wasn't entirely focused on self-benefit, unlike the ruling Republican regime we've been under for the last 7 years. She cared about her country and her people, but obviously did not have what it takes to quell the flames of ancient hatreds. Does anybody in that part of the planet?

Now that she is dead, what chaos will leap into the vacuum? I shudder in fear for the people of Pakistan and especially for the women who must live there.