Romana Bashir

Romana Bashir is a Pakistani Catholic woman, active since 1997 in interfaith harmony and women's education. She was a member of the Christian Study Centre, which promotes freedom of expression, justice, dignity and equality.

Activism

Bashir began working at grassroots level, working with the community to promote interfaith harmony. She joined the Christian Study Centre as a trainee. In 2009, she was appointed as head of the Centre, a well-known ecumenical organisation in Rawalpindi.

In 2012 she was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as a consultor of the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims within the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue of the Vatican. She is the first Pakistani Christian lay woman to be appointed to such a position.

In 2013, she was Executive Director, Peace and Development Foundation in Rawalpindi. The Peace and Development Foundation is a non-profit, non-government, non-political and non-sectarian organization which believes in unity, in diversity and in the equality of all citizens, regardless of religion, sex, class, caste, occupation, language, ethnicity or any other differentiation.

Popular speaker

In 2012 she was a member of a panel of five speakers at a press conference by Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS). The panel called for the blasphemy law be revised to prevent its misuse, abuse and exploitation.

In November 2012, she spoke at a workshop organised by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies for young religious scholars representing all sects of Islam and members of the Sikh, Baha’i, and Christian communities.

In 2013, she was a speaker at a seminar on “Tolerance in Pakistan” held at Quaid-e-Azam University’s (QAU). The seminar urged people to speak up against the rising levels of violence and intolerance related to ethnic and religious differences in the country.