Imaan Mazari, 32, human rights lawyer and her husband and fellow lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha from Pakistan were sentenced 10-year-jail by an Islamabad court on Saturday over anti-state social media posts. However, the pressure and arrest haven’t been able to silence her voice. She said to media agencies, “We will not back down. Truth seems overwhelmingly difficult in this country. But we knew that when we got into this work, we’re ready to face that,”. Mazari noted that the prison term won’t dent her resolve.
Who is Imaan Mazari
Imaan Mazari is a 32-year-old human rights lawyer from Pakistan who rose to fame for fighting some of the most sensitive cases and she has been defending ethnic minorities, journalists facing defamation charges and some of her clients have been branded blasphemers. With Mazari’s coming to prominence, so did the charges by the Pakistani government for cyber terrorism and hate speech. As per a court document, Mazari has been disseminating highly offensive content.
Mazari comes from a well-known family, she is the daughter of former minister for human rights, Shireen Mazari, and her late father was one of the top paediatricians of South Asia.
Because of her strong determination of fighting back despite all odds, she is being compared to Pakistan’s one of the popular human rights lawyers, late Asma Jahangir. Mazari said it is “a huge honour and a privilege”. Mazari even noted that, “But we knew that when we got into this work, we’re ready to face that. We will not back down.”
Mazari’s mother, the former minister for human rights, Shireen Mazari said her daughter has made her proud by defending dispossessed and marginalised. However, it has been difficult for the family to cope up with threats she had been receiving. She said, “When so many people are suffering, we expect she will also be made to suffer for speaking out against excesses to human rights,”.
What kind of cases Mazari fought for?
Mazari is a pro bono lawyer, she has handled some of the most sensitive cases in Pakistan, this includes enforced disappearances of ethnic Balochs, she even defended the top activist Mahrang Baloch. She has even appeared for Afghans who are systematically crackdown by Pakistani authorities. She has even taken up blasphemy cases.
Post her arrest, a journalist named Asad Ali Toor, whom Mazari represented in many cases, said, “a constant challenge for the state, as she is representing everybody who is directly or indirectly on the receiving end of the state,”. Toor further noted, “Despite coming from a very well-off family, she has made her life considerably more difficult through the choices she has made about her activism,”.
‘We will keep fighting’
Mazari is a graduate from the University of Edinburgh. In 2025, World Expression Forum honoured her with the Young Inspiration Award for her “extraordinary courage, integrity, and impact in the struggle for the rule of law and justice”. Last year, the UN special rapporteur for human rights defenders said, “Cases against her appear to reflect an arbitrary use of the legal system to harass and intimidate”. She was first targeted in a press conference held sometime in early January, where a military spokesman Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, shared Mazari’s post on X posts and filed a case against her, stating her as, “hidden elements committing subtle crimes. They operate under the guise of democracy and human rights to promote terrorism,”.
