Even after 34 years of Benazir Bhutto assuming office as the first female Prime Minister in a Muslim-majority country, the world still remembers her as an exemplary woman. The current Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, was invited by the renowned Harvard University for their commencement address, where she reiterated Benazir Bhutto’s call to strengthen democracy.
Jacinda Ardern Takes Inspiration From Benazir Bhutto
In her address, she mentions Former Pakistani PM, Benazir Bhutto, who in June 1989, was also invited for the Harvard commencement address, where she highlighted the importance of democratic countries coming together. Benazir Bhutto spoke about her journey, citizenry, representative government, human rights and democracy.
“The path she carved as a woman feels as relevant today as it was decades ago”
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern On Benazir Bhutto
“The path she carved as a woman feels as relevant today as it was decades ago, and so too is the message she shared here in this place. She said halfway through her speech in 1989, we must realise that democracy can be fragile,” said Jacinda. She continued to highlight the importance of what Benazir Bhutto said back in the 1980’s on the same stage Jacinda was standing on.
These words that Benazir Bhutto said still ring true. Jacinda went on to state that democracies indeed are fragile, it takes years to build but can be torn down in mere years.
This imperfect but precious way that we organise ourselves, that has been created to give equal voice to the weak and to the strong, that is designed to help drive consensus – It is fragile.
Jacinda Ardern
She also called upon social media companies and online providers to “recognise their power and act on it,” and be more actively responsible for deterring false information online.
Drawing comparison to herself, Jacinda stated that Benazir was the first leader to give birth in office. “The second and only leader to give birth in office almost 30 years later was me” she said. Interestingly, Jacinda’s daughter was born on the same date as Benazir Bhutto!
I met Benazir Bhutto in Geneva in June of 2007. We both attended a conference that drew together progressive parties around the world. 7 months later, she was assasinated.
Jacinda Ardern
In the address, Jacinda also talked about New Zealand’s gun law reform and abortion decriminalisation, for which she greatly applauded. The audience was also pleased to hear that New Zealand’s Parliament comprised of 50% women. She also informed that her country has banned semi-automatic weapons due to the tragic Christchurch mosque massacre.
Listen To The Full Speech Here
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Sources used in this article include SBC News
