Shahla Zia

Shahla Zia (12 February 1947 – 10 March 2005) also known as Shehla Zia, was a Pakistani lawyer and activist, known for her advocacy of women's rights.

Shahla Zia
شہلا ضیاء
Born(1947-02-12)12 February 1947
Lahore, Punjab, British India
Died10 March 2005(2005-03-10) (aged 58)
Islamabad, Pakistan
Burial placeIslamabad
CitizenshipPakistan
Alma materUniversity of the Punjab
OccupationLawyer

Personal life

Zia was born into a Punjabi family in Lahore. Her father Mahmood Ali Khan was an activist for the Pakistan movement, whilst her mother Satnam Mahmood was an educationist.[1][2] She attended the University of the Punjab in the 1960s, from where she received her Bachelor's Degree in law, becoming one of the first Pakistani women to do so.[2]

She had two sons and three daughters.[1][3] One of her daughters is Maliha Zia Lari, also a lawyer and human rights activist.[4] She died at the age of 58, after an illness.[1]

Zia was one of the founders of the women's rights organization Aurat Foundation along with Nigar Ahmed, as well as of the AGHS women's law firm and legal aid centre in 1980.[1][3] In 1983, Zia was imprisoned along with several other women for protesting the 1983 Law of Evidence in front of the Lahore High Court,[1][3] which had the effect of rendering the testimony of a male witness equal to that of two women under some circumstances.[5][6] She was also active in the Women's Action Forum.[3] Zia built a reputation for fighting laws that were discriminatory against women and religious minorities.[1][3]

Zia served on a commission examining the status of women in Pakistan, appointed by the government,[7] and was a coauthor of a report that it authored in 1997.[1] When the Pakistani National Assembly approved Sharia law in 1998 through the Fifteenth constitutional amendment, Zia was forced to resign her positions on several government bodies.[1]

Zia was the named plaintiff in a 1994 case in the Pakistani Supreme Court, in which the plaintiffs brought a legal challenge against the construction of an electric grid station, citing health risks.[8] The ruling is considered a landmark in environmental law in Pakistan, because it held that the right to a healthy environment was constitutionally protected, and fell within the right to life and dignity.[9][10]

References
  1. "HR activist Shahla Zia passes away". Dawn. 11 March 2005. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  2. "Shehla Zia (Pakistan)". WikiPeaceWomen. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  3. "Human rights activist Shehla Zia dies". Daily Times. 11 March 2005. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  4. Ali, Rabia (29 November 2014). "Legal battle: The woman behind Sindh's domestic violence bill". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  5. Weiss, Anita M. (1986). Islamic Reassertion in Pakistan: The Application of Islamic Laws in a Modern State. Syracuse University Press. p. 101. ISBN 9780815623755. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  6. Waraich, Sukhmani. "The Story Behind Pakistan's Feminism Of The 70s And 80s". Vagabomb. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  7. Mirsky, Judith; Radlett, Marty (2000). No Paradise Yet: The World's Women Face the New Century. Zed Books. ISBN 9781856499224. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  8. "Ms. Shehla Zia v. WAPDA, PLD 1994 SC 693". ESCR-Net. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  9. Hassan, Pervez; Azim, Azfar. "Securing Environmental Rights Through Public Interest Litigation in South Asia". Virginia Environmental Law Journal. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  10. Haglund, LaDawn; Robin, Stryker (2015). Closing the Rights Gap: From Human Rights to Social Transformation. University of California Press. pp. 113–114. ISBN 9780520958920.
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