After hug, Nilofar now fears for life

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar, against whom a fatwa was issued by radical clerics for hugging a male paratrooper during a paragliding show in Paris, has said she feared for her life because of the religious edict.

Bakhtiar, while speaking at the standing committee of parliament on issues relating to tourism ministry, said extremist elements had already killed Zille Huma, a provincial minister of Punjab, for her activism and she feared the same could happen to her.

"I have strengthened my security after the fatwa from the so-called Sharia court and killing of Punjab provincial Minister Zille-Humma," she told the panel on Saturday.

Huma was killed a few months ago by a religious fanatic, who later testified that he believed women should not hold any official position in government.

Bakhtiar said she had participated in the para jump to raise funds for victims the 2005 earthquake. Her feat was tracked widely by the French media.

Clerics of Lal Masjid, a prominent mosque in Islamabad, had recently issued a "fatwa" against Bakhtiar for hugging a French paratrooper. However, Bakhtiar maintained she was patted by her instructor.

"I had made a commitment to paraglide for the earthquake victims when I was not a federal minister to raise funds for the construction of 15 schools in the quake affected areas," Bakhtiar said.

Bhaktiar said that former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan also jumped to raise donations for tsunami victims on the request of the same French paragliding team with whom she had jumped in France.

"French media praised my daring attempt but unfortunately some irresponsible elements here presented this noble cause in a malicious manner," the minister said.

She said the caption given to the picture by some newspapers was totally out of context. "The instructor is a senior and respectable French citizen who appreciated me for my successful attempt," she said.

The central mosque in the capital issued a decree earlier this month calling on the government to remove the woman minister.

Recently, clerics and girl students of a local madrassa also set a deadline of one month for music shops in Islamabad to close down, claiming they were "un-Islamic".

Senate body comes out in support

Pakistan Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar, in the eye of a storm for giving her French paragliding male coach a hug, has got support from a parliamentary committee which lauded her “courage” in initiating fundraising campaigns “by risking her life in paragliding.”

The Senate Standing Committee for Tourism appreciated Bakhtiar and condemned the “misinterpretation” of the minister’s pictures, showing her hugging her coach, and assured her full support, the Daily Times reported on Sunday. Bakhtiar has herself taken a bold stand refusing to be “cowed down” by such threats and said that she would “jump again” for a worthy cause.

At a meeting chaired by Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal, the standing committee also discussed the tourism ministry’s performance and reviewed the ‘Visit Pakistan Year 2007’ activities. Bakhtiar told them that tour operators from India, Turkey, Germany, France, Britain, US, Malaysia, Singapore and the Gulf were keen to bring tourists to Pakistan.