Benazir+Bhutto

Green Unit 2 Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto, was a Pakistani politician who became the first woman leader of a Muslim nation in modern history. She served two terms as prime minister of Pakistan, in 1988–90 and 1993–96.

Bhutto was the daughter of the politician Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was the leader of Pakistan from 1971 until 1977. Benazir Bhutto was born in Karachi on June 21, 1953. After completing her early education in Pakistan, she attended Radcliffe College and Oxford University. She was educated at Harvard University (B.A., 1973) and subsequently obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics; she also completed a course in International Law and Diplomacy at Oxford(B.A., 1977). Ms. Bhutto is the author of "Foreign Policy in Perspective" (1978) and her autobiography, "Daughter of Destiny" (1989). She received the Bruno Kreisky Award for Human Rights in 1988 and the Honorary Phi Beta Kappa Award from Radcliffe in 1989. Benazir Bhutto was a woman of courage and conviction.

On December 2, 1988 Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islamic State. In the preceding decade of political struggle, Ms. Bhutto was arrested on numerous occasions; in all she spent nearly 6 years either in prison or under detention for her dedicated leadership of the then opposition Pakistan Peoples Party. Throughout the years in opposition, she pledged to transform Pakistani society by focusing attention on programs for health, social welfare and education for the underprivileged. Since assuming the office of Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto has emphasized the need to heal past wounds and to put an end to the unfair divisions in Pakistani society. This included and effort to reduce the existing discrimination between men and women. Ms. Bhutto also launched a nationwide program of health and education reform.

Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on 27 December 2007 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Then-leader of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, she had been campaigning for elections due in January 2008.

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