A Persian rendition of a book by the assassinated Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto titled as Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West has been provided by Alireza Ayari and is published in Iran by Etela'at.

IBNA: The book contains memories and personal encounters of the writer and her advice to the western world to better understanding the world of Islam. 

Bhutto was extremely concerned about emergence of sectarian beliefs and emergence of extremist Islamic groups in the Middle East and in Pakistan and Afghanistan in particular. 

The translator begins the rendition with a brief biography of Bhutto's life and assassination. 

A part of the preface of the book deals with the life of Benazir: "Having been born a prominent political families in the world, Benazir studies in Harvard and Oxford to complete her education. 

Later in 1977, she returned to Pakistan where her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had been elected prime minister, but days after her arrival, the military seized power and her father was imprisoned. In 1979 he was hanged by the military government of General Zia Ul Haq.

Bhutto herself was also arrested many times over the following years, and was detained for three years before being permitted to leave the country in 1984. She settled in London, but along with her two brothers, she founded an underground organization to resist the military dictatorship. When her brother died in 1985, she returned to Pakistan for his burial, and was again arrested for participating in anti-government rallies.

She was elected co-chairwoman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) along with her mother, and when free elections were finally held in 1988, she herself became Prime Minister. At 35, she was one of the youngest chief executives in the world, and the first woman to serve as prime minister in an Islamic country.

About the book, Brad Cooper says: Just days prior to her assassination, the late former prime minister of troubled Pakistan completed the manuscript of this book, which held great personal importance to her. Its importance extends beyond the writer’s own sense of purpose and accomplishment, however, because it is a vastly significant document for anyone seeking to understand the nature of past and contemporary Islam and its current interface with the West. 

The reconciliation to which the book’s title refers is Bhutto’s chief thesis: “two critical tensions . . . must be reconciled to prevent the clash of civilizations”—the first of these tensions is internal to Islam (extremism vs. moderation) and the second involves Islam’s relations with the non-Islamic world (confrontation or cooperation). 

Her intense, learned discussion of the concept of jihad, her careful explication of the Qur’an’s true position on women’s equality, and her helpful pointing out of the theological differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims, among other relevant and eloquent analyses, lead her to insist that “democracy and Islam are not only compatible but mutually sustaining.” 

Within a chapter on the history of the relatively new country of Pakistan lies an autobiographical section in which the author details her terms in office as prime minister and the difficulties she was personally and purposefully handed by her adversaries. This book is an eloquent plea, a passionate admonition, that reconciliation as she has outlined it must indeed occur.

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