Fiery and outspoken, Human Rights advocate and untiring activist in the women’s movement, Asma Jehangir was politicised very early. In 1971 at eighteen, she filed a writ of habeus corpus for her father, Malik Ghulam Jilani who was arrested by General Yahya Khan for being a member of the Awami League. Since then, she has lived an active public life.

A partner in AGHS Legal Aid Cell in Lahore, which runs Dastak, a shelter for women, she is also founder of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and founder-member of the Women’s Action Forum, and the South Asians for Human Rights. An advocate in the Supreme Court of Pakistan since 1992, Asma Jehangir is the UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial killings. She has authored Divine Sanction and Children of a Lesser God and was awarded the Magasaysay Prize in 1995.