Benazir Bhutto: The Rose of Pakistan is Crushed in Winter

Benazir Bhutto, June 21, 1953 - December 27, 2007.

It was a tragic Thursday, yesterday, December 27, 2007, as Benazir Bhutto, the twice elected former Prime Minister of Pakistan was murdered in cold blood by an unidentified assassin who blew himself up after shooting her fatally in the neck and chest at her political rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

The Spirit of Rawalpindi

It was in the twilight after the storm in Rawalpindi
I saw a feminine being, looking so fair
In immaculate white shawl, and flowing white robes
She seemed to be walking in mid air.
When the wind blew, I saw her face
It was the radiant face of Benazir
Her eyes were blazing and her lips were red
She brought out her right hand clutching a red Persian Rose flower
She stretched the Persian Rose flower to me.
Roses will grow in this place where my blood was shed.
Roses will blossom and bloom in Rawalpindi
There will be a rose for every Pakistani.
Then I saw a bed of roses under my feet
And I saw her white shawl flying in the air
I heard her voice echoing in the sky.
I am the sacrifice for peace
For Pakistan I have was born and for Pakistan I have lived
and for Pakistan I have shed my blood.
So that every Pakistani may live to see a New Pakistan.



Benazir Bhutto in-front of the portrait of her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Born on June 21, 1953, Ms. Bhutto, the first child in her family, reveled in telling friends that she was her father’s favorite. One of her most cherished anecdotes about her childhood involved her father’s encouraging her to set aside traditional Muslim views of a woman’s role and to have ambitions beyond the home, a message she said he conveyed with stories about Joan of Arc and Indira Gandhi.

After attending a private Christian-run school in Karachi, where the family maintained a luxurious mansion, Ms. Bhutto studied at Radcliffe College, earning a Harvard B.A. in 1973, and later at Oxford, where she gained a second B.A. in 1976. At Oxford, she was the first woman to become president of the Oxford Union, the prestigious debating society that nurtured several British prime ministers.

New York Times Biography

Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post who knew her when she was the first female President of the Oxford Union, called her "fearlessness epitomized"