A former Pakistani government minister who resigned after Islamists issued a fatwa against her for posing in an "obscene manner" with French paraglider pilots, vowed to fight religious extremism.
PARIS: A former Pakistani government minister who resigned after Islamists issued a fatwa against her for posing in an "obscene manner" with French paraglider pilots, vowed to fight religious extremism.
"My mission in life now is to face and fight extremism of any kind," former Pakistani minister of tourism Nilofar Bakhtiar told AFP in a telephone interview.
The religious decree against Bakhtiar, who met with French Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Secretary Rama Yade in Paris yesterday, came after she was photographed earlier this year in brightly-coloured paragliding gear taking part in a tandem glide during a trip to France and then hugging an instructor upon landing.
The jump had been organised to raise funds for children affected by the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, which killed more than 73,000 people.
According to the fatwa, the first issued by the self-styled court at the hardline, pro-Taliban Red Mosque in Islamabad since mullahs announced its formation in April, the photographs of Bakhtiar were "obscene and objectionable."
The Islamists, who this month have been locked in deadly fighting with government troops at the Red Mosque, at the time urged the government to sack Bakhtiar.
Yesterday she told AFP she had quit her post in May after being pushed out of the presidency of the women's group within President Pervez Musharraf's party, the Pakistan Muslim League.
"I was very angry and I thought that some support would come from the party leadership, the government. Nothing came.
They all just kept mum on this issue because the ... Mosque episode was going on," she said.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}