# Human Rights Defender who Challenged the Pakistan Government - Gululai Ismail

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-borgen-project-podcast-5725444/human-rights-defender-who-challenged-the-pakistan-government-gululai-ismail
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-borgen-project-podcast-5725444/human-rights-defender-who-challenged-the-pakistan-government-gululai-ismail.md
Podcast: [The Borgen Project Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-borgen-project-podcast-5725444)
Published: 2025-08-05T15:54:58+00:00
Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/human-rights-defender-who-challenged-the-pakistan-government-gululai-ismail--67259337
Audio file: https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/67259337/20250804_gulalai_v1.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-borgen-project-podcast-5725444/episodes/human-rights-defender-who-challenged-the-pakistan-government-gululai-ismail
Duration seconds: 2441

## Resource

Women’s rights activist Gululai Ismail is one of Pakistan’s most prominent human rights defenders and critics of the Pakistani security services. Authorities in Pakistan have falsely accused her of a litany of serious offences including sedition, financing terrorism and defaming state institutions as a result of her advocacy for a grassroots Pashtun rights movement.Ismail was forced to go on the run in 2019, managing to escape to the U.S. despite significant efforts to capture her. Pakistani security services have since targeted Ismail’s parents, throwing her 65-year-old father into jail on charges of sedition and terrorism financing, which human rights defenders say are bogus and thinly-veiled revenge against the family for embarrassing state security services.Ismail is well-known in the global human rights community for spotlighting the rampant abuse of women and girls in Pakistan, especially gang rapes perpetrated by government soldiers. She is the founder of a leading organization called Aware Girls, which focuses on women’s empowerment, peace-building and countering violent extremism. Official podcast of The Borgen Project, an international organization that works at the political level to improve living conditions for people impacted by war, famine and poverty. The Borgen Project Podcast seeks to give an informative and humorous look at the biggest issues facing the world. borgenproject.org Official podcast of The Borgen Project, an international organization that fights for the world's poor. Clint Borgen and team provide an entertaining look at global issues, politics and advocacy. Learn more at borgenproject.org.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-borgen-project-podcast-5725444/episodes/human-rights-defender-who-challenged-the-pakistan-government-gululai-ismail/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-borgen-project-podcast-5725444/human-rights-defender-who-challenged-the-pakistan-government-gululai-ismail.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.