Dictatorships by their nature are unrepresentative as they neglect the social needs of the people.

Oppression does not know the meaning of provincial boundaries. Aren't our energies better spent fighting the common enemy instead of each other?

As a woman leader, I thought I brought a different kind of leadership. I was interested in women's issues, in bringing down the population growth rate... as a woman, I entered politics with an additional dimension - that of a mother.

I was brought up to believe that human beings are good, which is why it shocks me to the core when I see human beings behaving badly.

Right now, they feel they have lost their voice, and their miseries have increased since my departure.

I found that a whole series of people opposed me simply on the grounds that I was a woman. The clerics took to the mosque saying that Pakistan had thrown itself outside the Muslim world and the Muslim umar by voting for a woman, that a woman had usurped a man's place in the Islamic society.

Political dictatorship and social hopelessness create the desperation that fuels religious extremism.