In an open letter to Benazir Bhutto's fiery niece Fatima, a leading women rights activist has said the young lady is washing family linen in public, which the slain former Premier never did even under "extreme provocation.""My sense of you was of a serious and sincere young woman (Fatima) who had sensitivity and an openness that was engaging.Unfortunately your personalised attack on Benazir Bhutto.has jolted me," Nighat Said Khan, Director of the Institute for Women's Studies and one of the founders of Women's Action Forum, said."I was particularly appreciative of the fact that she (Benazir) didn't wash her family linen in public even under extreme provocation," she said in the open letter.As a feminist "I am appalled that you are so deriding of Benazir Bhutto as a woman. Your article brought to the fore how ingrained sexism is in many of us.. By calling Benazir Mrs Zardari you insulted not only her but all of us women who have tried to carve out our identities within a rampant and sinister patriarchal structure," she wrote.In interviews to the foreign media, Fatima, 25, has disapproved of her cousin and Benazir's son Bilawal being made chief of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) because he is a Bhutto. Bilawal was appointed to the post after his mother was assassinated on December 27."And you, Fatima, is not the media and political and social circles focussing on you only because you are a Bhutto? Surely every young Pakistani professional woman is not being interviewed by the London Times or the Guardian? Do you also not play the Bhutto card every time you accept or court celebrity status?" Khan said.The open letter is being debated in cyberspace with many calling it "an eloquent piece".Khan said she, like most people, was saddened by Fatima's father Murtaza Bhutto's murder. "I remember his promise when he returned to Pakistan, but I was disturbed by his claim to his 'inheritance as a male heir' and I continue to be enraged that a father should separate you, his daughter, from your mother at the age of three. No law, religion or system allows for this."Fatima lives with her stepmother Ghinwa, Murtaza's second wife."You and your mother Ghinwa argue that the Bhutto name should not determine political success, nor should it give privilege. I agree, but then why does Ghinwa Bhutto lead her faction of the PPP as Murtaza's widow? Is it not her husband's name that she exploits and is the Bhutto legacy not being used here?" Khan said.A post on Pak Tea House, a popular hangout for many Pakistani bloggers, read: "This piece is a reminder for the bright and ambitious Fatima Bhutto that she should get her politics sorted out before she ventures to settle intra-family scores in the public domain."Fatima is surely a budding literary talent but her politics alas falls short of historical consciousness and betrays a lack of understanding of the nuances of Pakistan's homegrown struggle for democracy."
