An icon of human rights movement

> Asma Jahangir was born on January 27, 1952 in Lahore.

> She studied at the Convent of Jesus and Mary before receiving her B.A from Kinnaird and LLB from the Punjab University in 1978.

> In 1987 she co-founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and became its secretary-general until 1993 when she was elevated as the commission’s chairperson.

> She was the first woman to serve as president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

> She was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Arbitrary or Summary Executions.

> She also worked as the UN Rapporteur of Freedom of Religion or Belief.

> She was imprisoned in 1983 for taking part in a pro-democracy movement during the military regime of Gen Zia-ul-Haq.

> Jahangir was put under house arrest in 2007 after the imposition of emergency rule.

> She received France’s highest civilian award in 2014 and Sweden’s alternative to the Nobel Prize for her work.

> In 1992, Jahangir was awarded the American Bar Association International Human Rights Award, the Martin Ennals Award and the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1995.

> She is survived by a son and two daughters.

> She penned two books Divine Sanction? The Hadood Ordinance and Children of a Lesser God: Child Prisoners of Pakistan.

> She won many cases, including for bonded labourers and a legal battle that allowed women to marry of their own volition.