Fatima Murtaza Bhutto is a Pakistani poet, writer and journalist. She was born in Kabul in 1982. Her father Murtaza Bhutto, son of Pakistan’s former President and Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Fatima Bhutto completed her B.A. degree in Middle Eastern studies from Barnard College, Columbia University in Manhattan, USA, after receiving her secondary education at the Karachi American School. She received a master's degree in South Asian Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
She came to fame after the appearance of her first book, a collection of poems, titled Whispers of the Desert published in 1997 by Oxford University Press Pakistan when Fatima was only 15 years old. She received notable coverage for her second book, 8.50 a.m. 8 October 2005, a collection of first-hand accounts from survivors of 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, was published by OUP in 2006. Her latest book is Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughter's Memoir, which is a biography of the Bhutto family, mainly the political account of her father Mir Murtaza Bhutto.
Fatima wrote a weekly column for Jang – Pakistan’s largest Urdu newspaper and its English sister publication The News – for two years. She covered the Israeli invasion and war with Lebanon from Lebanon in the summer of 2006 and also reported from Iran in January 2007 and Cuba in April 2008. Fatima’s work has appeared in the New Statesman, Daily Beast, Guardian, and The Caravan Magazine.
Fatima Bhutto was born to an Afghan Pashtun mother, in Kabul, Afghanistan, when her father Murtaza Bhutto, was in exile during the military regime of General Zia-ul-Haq. Her mother is Fauzia Fasihudin Bhutto, daughter of Afghanistan's former Foreign Affairs official. Her parents divorced when she was three years old.
Her father, Murtaza Bhutto took Fatima with him moving from country to country and she grew up effectively stateless, always on the move, and constantly menaced by the pursuing agents of Pakistan’s security forces. In 1989, Murtaza Bhutto met Ghinwa Bhutto, a Lebanese ballet teacher during his exiled stay in Syria and they married. Fatima considers Ghinwa to be her real mother and political mentor. Years later, her mother unsuccessfully attempted to gain parental custody of Fatima.
Fatima Bhutto lives with her stepmother Ghinwa Bhutto, and her half-brother Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Jr. They live at the famous residence 70 Clifton Road in Karachi.
Following the assassination of her aunt, Benazir Bhutto, her entrance into politics has been speculated. She has stated that for now she prefers to remain active through her writing, rather than through elected office. However, she actively supports her mother's chairpersonship of her father's wing of the Pakistan Peoples Party (Shaheed Bhutto). She believes in democracy and not birthright politics.
I don't believe in birthright politics. I don't think, nor have I ever thought, that my name qualifies me for anything. In an interview with Newsweek, in December 2010, she spoke of her political commitment through her activism and writing, but at the same time stating that she has to "rule a political career out entirely because of the effect of dynasties on Pakistan" referring to her Bhutto family dynasty with regards to Pakistani politics.
She loathes Facebook and is not, nor will ever be, a member.
