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strong. And on it goes. Bob Stanley, thank you very much. Now it's time | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
for this week's Meet the Author, with Nick Higham. Fatima Bhutto | :00:00. | :00:09. | |
comes from one of Pakistan's political dynasty is, her | :00:10. | :00:11. | |
grandfather was the Prime Minister and so was her auntie. Both died | :00:12. | :00:17. | |
violently. Her father, also a politician was murdered, as well and | :00:18. | :00:20. | |
one of her uncles was poisoned. She is a generalist and an author, and a | :00:21. | :00:28. | |
journalist and has now turned her hand to fiction. Her first novel, | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
called The Shadow Of The Crescent Moon, is not set among the political | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
Western educated class she comes from but one of Pakistan's most | :00:38. | :00:45. | |
remote and dangerous areas. Fatima Bhutto, this is set in the tribal | :00:46. | :00:52. | |
areas of Pakistan, right on the north`west Frontier with | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
Afghanistan. But those of us who won't be mayor, what place is this? | :00:58. | :01:03. | |
This place has guarded its freedom very strongly. It's always | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
maintained a degree of separation, of autonomy. And, since of course | :01:09. | :01:14. | |
the war on terror, it is lost a great deal of that. Pakistani troops | :01:15. | :01:20. | |
have entered the area. And we see this now in the context of the drone | :01:21. | :01:25. | |
was, north and south, the epicentre of where these unmanned drone | :01:26. | :01:31. | |
strikes happened on it sometimes daily basis. Why did such novel | :01:32. | :01:39. | |
here? The northernmost part of Pakistan is deeply misunderstood. `` | :01:40. | :01:48. | |
why did you set it here? We don't look at how people live there any | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
more and how people suffer the violence. And what young people must | :01:52. | :01:59. | |
do in order to survive. There are three brothers. One of whom has | :02:00. | :02:05. | |
escaped to America and come back. One was caught up in the separatist | :02:06. | :02:11. | |
movement. One is a doctor. They have all suffered in one way or another. | :02:12. | :02:16. | |
By all compromised and been badly affected by the violence. This also | :02:17. | :02:22. | |
two female characters and I get the impression they rather took over the | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
book. The women are the heartbeat of the novel. They captured somewhere | :02:28. | :02:35. | |
along the way. It started as a story about three brothers and these | :02:36. | :02:41. | |
women, like women doing Pakistan, took over, refused to be kept in the | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
background. It's really them who give us strong sense of suffering | :02:46. | :02:51. | |
that millions of young women face in Pakistan. And even in South Asia. | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
But more importantly, the struggle that women face and it's a struggle | :02:57. | :03:02. | |
which is inclusive, which does not separate itself according to caste | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
and religion. Or ethnicity. It's a compassionate struggle, not one of | :03:10. | :03:15. | |
violence. It doesn't seek to raise other women up alongside each other. | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
And they pay very dearly for this. They are attacked by the status quo. | :03:20. | :03:28. | |
And bullied by men. We see this in real life, not just on the novel, | :03:29. | :03:33. | |
the way in which Malala Yousafzai, a brave young Pakistani has been | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
treated by her country, very unfairly. How has she been treated, | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
apart from the fact she was shot and left for dead? A segment of the | :03:44. | :03:48. | |
country has heaped a lot of that she'll and hostility on her after | :03:49. | :03:55. | |
the incident. It's not to say that it is Pakistan's reaction because | :03:56. | :04:03. | |
millions of people see her as a brave woman fighting to raise her | :04:04. | :04:06. | |
voice but the segment you see on Twitter and Facebook has been very | :04:07. | :04:13. | |
hostile. It's not permissible, it seems, for those outside a central | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
power to speak. And women are always kept outside that central power, | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
pushed into the periphery, but they fight back. It does seem Pakistan is | :04:24. | :04:30. | |
moving towards the status quo of a failed state. I don't think you can | :04:31. | :04:37. | |
resign such a young country towards hopelessness just yet. I think | :04:38. | :04:40. | |
Pakistan is a country of deep longing, and Pakistan's journey is | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
one of trying to fulfil that longing. By Pakistan, I don't mean | :04:47. | :04:53. | |
the corrupt and bankrupt state and inefficient to a violent and | :04:54. | :04:56. | |
dangerous degree, but the people's longing for justice, for the promise | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
of what this place was supposed to be, supposed to protect people, | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
include people. And was opposed to create a safe place of belonging. It | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
still exists in the people 's hearts, and it is the reason why you | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
see so many young people stay, actually. While many try to go out. | :05:16. | :05:23. | |
Many struggle and battle in order to somehow fulfil that longing. You | :05:24. | :05:31. | |
were born there and studied in America and in Britain. And you now | :05:32. | :05:34. | |
live in Karachi. Why are you still there? Well, I haven't yet found a | :05:35. | :05:43. | |
good enough reason to go. It's dangerous, turbulent, I don't think | :05:44. | :05:50. | |
that's a good reason. Like all Pakistanis, I have that longing, | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
too. I wonder if one reason use they is a sense of family duty because of | :05:56. | :06:00. | |
grandfather was Prime Minister. He was executed. Your father was a | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
politician. He was assassinated. Your uncle was poisoned, and your | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
aunt was assassinated. There must be an assumption that you will follow | :06:12. | :06:17. | |
them in due course and go into politics. That might be an | :06:18. | :06:21. | |
assumption in peoples minds, it's never been an option or an interest | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
in mine. The only legacy of my family that I feel responsible to is | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
the one I live with and try to uphold every day which is to be | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
kind, compassionate, to defend those who are voiceless. I don't have to | :06:38. | :06:44. | |
be in politics to do that at all. You have written nonfiction, about | :06:45. | :06:50. | |
your father's death. You have written journalism and poetry. This | :06:51. | :06:53. | |
is your first novel. Why switch to fiction now? Will you stick to it? I | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
would love to, it's the most compassionate form because fiction | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
doesn't allow you to have prejudices. It doesn't forgive you. | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
It demands that you observe, actually. That you bear witness. In | :07:11. | :07:18. | |
doing that, that you don't judge. I don't know why now I'm not sure how | :07:19. | :07:25. | |
it's crept up on me, but I found it a liberating experience and I would | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
very much like to continue. Fatima Bhutto, thank you very much indeed. | :07:31. | :07:32. |