| Romana Bashir | |
| Citizenship: | Pakistani |
| Occupation: | Activist |
| Employer: | Peace and Development Foundation, Rawalpindi |
| Known For: | Promoting interfaith harmony and women's education |
| Boards: | Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims |
Romana Bashir is a Pakistani community activist for women and minority rights and religious tolerance. Bashir is a past executive director of the Peace and Development Foundation in Rawalpindi and was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as a consultor for the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims.
Bashir, a Catholic woman, began working in 1997 at the grassroots level, working with the community to promote interfaith harmony and women's education.[1] She was a member of the Christian Study Centre, which promotes freedom of expression, justice, dignity and equality.[2] In Rawalpindi, Bashir joined the Christian Study Centre as a trainee and was later promoted to head of programs in 2009.[3]
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.[4] She is the first Pakistani Christian lay woman appointed to such a position.
In 2013, she was Executive Director, Peace and Development Foundation in Rawalpindi.[5] [6]
In 2021 she was listed in Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's White In The Flag project as a human rights defender.[7]
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.[8] 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, Baháʼí, and Christian communities.[9] 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.[10]