Benazir Bhutto A BURST of BRILLIANCE

As a distinguished politician and an inspirational leader her legacy and significance in world history continue to hold a special place in the hearts of the millions of women around the world. Her influence spread amongst many girls and women who observed her life, her purpose, her proactiveness and perseverance and employ these elements to the blueprint they envision for their own destiny.

We at Good Girl Global wish to profile exceptional and inspirational woman and are advocating for them to have optimal influence over society and there truly is no other woman who is worthy of featuring our 'Alpha-Best' this week other than the Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto.

Why do we need to be Influenced by women of Substance and Integrity?

She was usually seen with her head covered in a white headscarf, which gained the reputation of the ‘cloak of power’. She had a face perfectly painted in a double layer of eyeliner a rose-tinted cheeks and lipstick, which was, can be described as an orange shade of red. Benazir Bhutto was not only a beautiful woman; she was also the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan. She served for two non-consecutive terms an was campaigning for a third term in the build up to the 2008 election before she was tragically assassinated on the 27 December 2007.

When reminiscing about Bhutto her close friend Daphne Barack recalls; “The Benazir I knew and loved was the most extraordinary woman. Everyone knows she was brilliant and extremely ambitious but what very few people know - and I am privileged to be one of those - was that she was also what I would call a girlie-girl who loved to talk about skincare and hairstyles” Clearly Benazir was our kinda girl. A Burst of Brilliance.

Following her graduation from Harvard University as well as Oxford University with degrees in Politics, International Governance and Economics she embarked on a fight for democracy at a time when her country was ruled by a military dictatorship. She was the key organizer of the Peoples Party of Pakistan (PPP) which was designed to resist military government. In 1988 at the age of 35 years old, she was elected as the first democratically elected female Prime Minister of an Islamic country and one of the youngest heads of state in the world. During her time in power advocated for women’s rights and greater equality in Pakistan She made hunger, housing and health care her top priorities resulting in an era of a both an increase of electricity and schools throughout the country.

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace prize (and future feature on Good Girl Global) has cited Benazir Bhutto as “personal idol”. She paid tribute to Bhutto when she addresses the United Nations in 2013 by wearing the white headscarf Bhutto was well known for over her head.

One of Bhutto’s greatest legacies is the Benazir Income Support Program a program in which she designed together with Economist Dr. Kaiser Bengali. The purpose of this program is distribute money to low-income families throughout Pakistan. The money is transferred to a woman and by placing the spending power onto a woman empowers ‘the woman’ on a socio-economic level. Another legacy of Bhutto's is that many young Pakistani girls have access to education as a result of the awareness campaigns pioneered by her and many of these young girls credit Benazir as inspiration for their education opportunities. Over an above all the legacies that she left behind, her greatest legacy was her reassurance to every girl and woman who was ever told that being a woman excluded her from a lifetime of accomplishment, service and worth; was simply untrue.... Inspiring