Shehrbano Taseer

Shehrbano Taseer

Biography

Shehrbano Taseer is a Pakistani journalist and civil society activist. Her father Salman Taseer, the former governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province was assassinated in January 2011 for his stand that Pakistan’s discriminatory blasphemy laws should be revised. Since her father’s murder, Shehrbano has become an outspoken civil society activist and one of Pakistan’s most articulate and recognizable critics of extremism.¹ She has written countless articles in some of the world’s most prominent newspapers, such as the Guardian and The New York Times, to pay tribute to her father and to draw attention to the dire circumstances for moderate voices in Pakistan. According to Shehrbano, the voices of all those like her father, the millions who believe in the secular vision of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the country’s founder, must not be silenced. There are those who believe that Salman Taseer’s death was the final nail in the coffin for a tolerant Pakistan. However, Shehrbano believes that it was her father that was buried and not the courage he inspired in others.² Along with her writing, Shehrbano is also known for her speeches in which she discusses how extremism affects Pakistani civil society, how it has taken root in the country’s political and religious culture and what young and moderates Pakistanis can do to challenge this extremism.   [1] Guardian: Salman Taseer Assasination Pakistan Blasphemy Laws. [2] NY Times: My Father Died for Pakistan. [3] ibid.