Photo courtesy Foreign Office
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday attended the unveiling of a wax statue of his mother, Benazir Bhutto, at Madame Tussauds in Dubai, thanking the wax museum for honoring her memory.
The first woman to be elected prime minister of a Muslim state, Benazir was a staunch supporter of democracy, fighting for it both in her homeland and abroad from her adolescence. She was assassinated in an attack on a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) rally on Dec. 27, 2007 in Rawalpindi, two weeks before the 2008 general elections that were widely perceived as hers to lose.
Bhutto-Zardari, her son and the current chairman of the PPP, thanked Madame Tussauds for honoring his mother at the unveiling ceremony. “With immense pride and humility, I attended the unveiling of the statue of the first Pakistani personality to be commemorated at Madame Tussauds today in Dubai—the inimitable, the indomitable, the irreplaceable, my mother, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after attending the event.
“I am sure that this statue will serve to inspire generations to come and remind us of the enduring resonance of the values #SMBB lived and fought for—democracy, justice, human rights, rule of law, compassion, and freedom,” he said, stressing that his family and all Pakistanis were “profoundly grateful” to the wax museum for honoring her memory and legacy.
During his speech at the event, he said he first seen a wax statue of his mother at Madame Tussauds in London. However, he said, its presence in Dubai was especially touching, as his mother had spent around 10 years in Dubai when they were in exile. “So, we have a close attachment to the city and the country,” he said. “She is a symbol of democracy, freedom and equal rights for women across the world and the peaceful, prosperous and progressive face of Pakistan,” he said and thanked the entire team at the museum for creating the wax figure of his assassinated mother.