Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s defiant prisoner of intolerance, vows to stay put

by DECLAN WALSH

Sherry Rehman, a liberal parliamentarian with the ruling Pakistan People’s Party who proposed a bill to reform Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, at her home home in Karachi. PHOTO/Declan Walsh/Observer

All Sherry Rehman wants is to go out – for a coffee, a stroll, lunch, anything. But that’s not possible. Death threats flood her email inbox and mobile phone; armed police are squatted at the gate of her Karachi mansion; government ministers advise her to flee.

“I get two types of advice about leaving,” says the steely politician. “One from concerned friends, the other from those who want me out so I’ll stop making trouble. But I’m going nowhere.” She pauses, then adds quietly: “At least for now.”

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