The Daughter of War: Ismat Raza Shahjahan By: Talha Khan This is an inspiring story of revolutionary political struggle by a woman from a nation enduring an imperialist war for the last forty years, compounded by colonial occupation, state-induced militarization, barbaric patriarchy fueling the conflict, religious fundamentalism, a militaristic authoritarian regime backed by global imperialist powers, poverty, and unprecedented international debt. Ismat Raza Shahjahan is a socialist-feminist political leader from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. She was born in 1963 in the Karak district, located on the Durand Line, which divides Pashtuns into Afghanistan and Pakistan rule. She has been associated with the Left for 40 years and involved in progressive political movements, including student movements, human rights and democratic rights movements, anti-war civil rights movements, national liberation movements, class struggles, and women's emancipation struggles. She received her Bachelor of Arts in law and political science from Jinnah College for Women, University of Peshawar. She studied public administration at the University of Peshawar and development studies at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) in The Hague, Netherlands. By profession, she is a retired international finance specialist. Shahjahan played a key role in rebuilding the Left in Pakistan after its collapse following the global decline of socialist revolutions. She is the founding president of the Women Democratic Front (WDF), a socialist-feminist resistance organization established on 8 March 2018. She is a founding member and former Deputy Secretary General of the Awami Workers Party (AWP), a mainstream socialist party established in 2012, and a leading founding member of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), an anti-war and anti-militarization civil rights movement established in 2018. She is the publisher and editor of the socialist-feminist magazine Narivaad (Feminism). Shahjahan was born to a progressive Pashtun family that supported the peaceful Khudai Khidmatgar (Nonviolent Resistance Movement) resistance movement against British colonial Raj, founded and led by the Pashtun leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan). Shahjahan developed political consciousness in her early youth. She began revolutionary politics as a university student leader in 1983, during the Americas’ jihadi war on Afghanistan and Zia-ul-Haq’s military dictatorship, when student unions were banned. In 1986, she joined the left-wing Democratic Students Federation (DSF) and later the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP). She also worked actively with the Muttahida Labour Federation (MLF), a left-wing trade union movement. During her time with the CPP, she established the Democratic Women's Association (DeWA) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (then North-West Frontier Province). She has been the publisher and editor of the progressive Pashto-language political magazine Leekwal (Writer). As founding president of the WDF, Shahjahan established the Aurat Azadi March (Women Emancipation March) together with her comrades in Islamabad on 8 March 2018, despite facing threats from the right wing inside and outside the state. For Aurat Azadi March 2020, Shahjahan wrote the anthem “Hum Inquilab Hain” (We are Revolution). The 2020 March was attacked with stones by state-backed religious right-wing militant and political organizations in broad daylight in front of international media, and Shahjahan was also hit on the head with a brick. She, along with other organizers, called a press conference after the March, demanding that the government act against those responsible for the attack. In 2021, multiple false blasphemy cases aimed at banning the March were registered against her and her comrades, which they bravely fought in court. She also confronted organized anti-feminist media campaigns by the state and religious right wing. As one of the leading organizers of the Aurat Azadi March, WDF, and PTM, she has faced crackdowns since 2018 and bravely fought state repression. She has been arrested multiple times and faced court trials. She also faced a months-long court trial in 1988 during General Zia's military dictatorship after being arrested from a protest in Islamabad. The protest, organized by her and her comrades on 11 April 1988, was against the catastrophic explosion of the missile storage facility at Ujhri Camp in Rawalpindi Cantonment on 10 April 1988. The bombs and missiles provided by the US for the war on Afghanistan were stored in Pakistan – a frontline state in the war against the Afghan Revolution (Saur Revolution 1978). On April 21, 2018, a night before the PTM’s public rally in Lahore, military agencies picked up Shahjahan along with several leading activists, including AWP president Fanoos Gujjar and PTM leader Ali Wazir. Protests and media campaigns against their enforced disappearance and for their release broke out across the country immediately after they went missing, leading to their release after a night. The arrests were criticized by the public and notable politicians, including Maryam Nawaz, Pervaiz Rashid, and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. On January 28, 2020, Shahjahan and 28 other protesters, including PTM leader Mohsin Dawar and Ammar Rashid, were arrested by police outside the National Press Club in Islamabad, where they had gathered to protest the arrest of PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen, who had been detained in Peshawar a day earlier on false sedition charges. Shahjahan and Mohsin Dawar were released on January 29, but Ammar Rashid and 22 others were sent to jail on sedition charges. The protesters appealed to the Islamabad High Court, where Chief Justice Athar Minallah granted them bail on February 3. Minallah summoned the Islamabad City Magistrate, demanding an explanation for first placing sedition charges on peaceful protesters and later escalating them to terrorism charges in the first information report. The charges against all 23 protesters were dropped on February 17. Manzoor Pashteen was also released from jail on February 25, 2020. Shahjahan faced another court trial on May 26, 2023, after being arrested from a protest against the demolition and forced eviction of working-class settlements in Shah Allah Ditta, Islamabad, by the Capital Development Authority for land grabbing and gentrification of the city. Shahjahan’s entire life has been centered on progressive political struggle. She has been part of democratic movements against dictatorships, as well as anti-war campaigns. Shahjahan can be described as a socialist, feminist, and anti-imperialist. Through her political ideology and organizations, including WDF, PTM, and AWP, she is fighting for the liberation of the masses, oppressed nations, women, and people of persecuted religions and sects, as well as building the unity of progressive forces. She has always stood in solidarity with the struggles of women, students, workers, peasants, oppressed nations, and religious minorities. Throughout her political struggles, she has remained at the forefront of feminist, class, and national liberation struggles, all aimed at establishing a peaceful, sovereign, secular, and people’s and national democratic state and society. I feel incredibly fortunate to have met and gotten to know such an inspiring woman. Her unwavering passion and commitment to societal transformation motivate me every day. She is a beacon of strength, resistance, and hope for a better future.

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