History making Tarbert native to return home

November 1994

SHE WAS the first woman member of the Pakistan National Assembly.

She single-handedly revolutionised the attitude of the Pakistanis to women; and she was a constant political thorn in the side of Ali Bhutto, father of the present Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. And she’s a Kerry woman. Jennifer Musa, or Bridie Wrenn as she’s known to her friends and relatives in Kerry, is due to come back to her native Tarbert this Christmas for the first time in ten years.

And according to her sister Margaret O’Donnell, who still lives in Tarbert, it should prove to be an emotional return home.

“She’s been talking about coming home for years, because really there’s nothing to keep her in Pakistan now, with her husband dead and her son abroad. But she has stayed on there over the years. I think she must be attached to the place,” said Mrs O’Donnell.

Jenny Wrenn met and married Qazi Musa in London in the 1940s when she was a young nurse and he was a student at Oxford. The newly-weds moved to Quetta in Pakistan, but their happiness was shortlived. Qazi died after a car accident in 1956, leaving her to raise their only son, Ashraf.

After considering going home to Kerry, Ms Musa eventually decided to stay in Pakistan, where she went on to become something of an institution. Entering politics in 1970, she became the first woman member of the Pakistan National Assembley.

Zulifikar Ali Bhutto, father of the present Prime Minister, used to refer to her as “that damn dame” and constantly refused her demands to set up a commission on the status of women.

When Bhutto dismissed the National Awami Party Government, of which she was a member, in 1973 and arrested its leaders, Mrs Musa led the first ever procession of women in protest.

Confined to underground political activity under martial law in 1977, the Tarbert woman decided to enter commerce, growing tobacco in her garden, opening 16 shops and later starting an ice factory which still thrives today.

Nowadays, with her son dispatched to China as Pakmstan s Ambassador, Mrs Musa runs the ice factory, offers counsel to local women and campaigns for men to treat women better. Known to the local people as ‘Mummy Jennifer’, she has become something of an institution in Pakistan.

Mrs Musa is expected home at Christmas.

Gail McCormack, Camp, at the oficial opening of Tralee Sailing Club.