Shahla Zia (12 February 1947 – 10 March 2005) also known as Shehla Zia, was a Pakistani lawyer and activist, known for her advocacy of

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

Personal life

Zia was born into a Punjabi family in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

. Her father Mahmood Ali Khan was an activist for the

Pakistan movement The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the pe ...

, whilst her mother Satnam Mahmood was an educationist. She attended the

University of the Punjab The University of the Punjab (Urdu, pnb, ), also referred to as Punjab University, is a public, research, coeducational higher education institution located in Lahore, Pakistan. Punjab University is the oldest public university in Pakistan. ...

in the 1960s, from where she received her

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in law, becoming one of the first Pakistani women to do so. She had two sons and three daughters. One of her daughters is Maliha Zia Lari, also a lawyer and

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

activist. She died at the age of 58, after an illness.

Legal work and activism

Zia was one of the founders of the women's rights organization

Aurat Foundation Aurat Foundation, founded in 1986, is a women's rights organization based in Islamabad, Pakistan. Its co-founders were Nigar Ahmed and Shahla Zia. Aurat Foundation lobbies and advocates for women. It also holds demonstrations and public awareness ...

along with

Nigar Ahmed Nigar Ahmed (16 February 1945 – 24 February 2017) was a Pakistani women’s rights activist who founded the Women’s Action Forum and Aurat Foundation. She died aged 72. Early life and education Ahmed was born in Lahore in 1945, to Riazuddin A ...

, as well as of the AGHS women's law firm and legal aid centre in 1980. In 1983, Zia was imprisoned along with several other women for protesting the 1983 Law of Evidence in front of the

Lahore High Court The Lahore High Court () is based in Lahore, Pakistan. It was established as a high court on 21 March 1882. The Lahore High Court has jurisdiction over Punjab (Pakistan). The High Court's principal seat is in Lahore, but there are benches in th ...

, which had the effect of rendering the testimony of a male witness equal to that of two women under some circumstances. She was also active in the Women's Action Forum. Zia built a reputation for fighting laws that were discriminatory against women and religious minorities. Zia served on a commission examining the status of women in Pakistan, appointed by the government, and was a coauthor of a report that it authored in 1997. When the Pakistani National Assembly approved

Sharia law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the Five Pillars of Islam, religious precepts of Islam and is based on the Islamic holy books, sacred scriptures o ...

in 1998 through the Fifteenth constitutional amendment, Zia was forced to resign her positions on several government bodies. Zia was the named plaintiff in a 1994 case in the Pakistani Supreme Court, in which the plaintiffs brought a legal challenge against the construction of an electric grid station, citing health risks. The ruling is considered a landmark in environmental law in Pakistan, because it held that the

right to a healthy environment The right to a healthy environment or the right to a sustainable and healthy environment is a human right advocated by human rights organizations and environmental organizations to protect the ecological systems that provide human health. The rig ...

was constitutionally protected, and fell within the right to life and dignity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zia, Shahla Pakistani women's rights activists Pakistani human rights activists Pakistani lawyers Pakistani women lawyers Pakistani women 1940s births Punjab University Law College alumni 2005 deaths 20th-century women lawyers