No apologies for a good life: ‘Sherry’

Politics was always a passion. And though she treads cautiously while replying to questions on Indo-Pak relations, her personal life is an open book that she revels in reading out to willing listeners. You don’t need to ask her about it: she volunteers the information.

Over lunch at The Imperial, Rehman chuckles as she says: ‘‘I totally disagree with Cosmo when it says that you must hide your brains and massage a man’s ego. I’ve never massaged a man’s ego. I spend my time deflating them and I’ve done pretty well for myself. I mean, I’m on my third husband and every single one of them has supported me in what I do.’’

An alumnus of the upper-class Karachi Grammar School, Rehman entered journalism at 18. After two years in the profession, she opted for undergraduate studies at Smith College, Massachusetts, USA, and then moved to the UK for a year to study at Sussex University.

She comes from a wealthy family — her father was an educationist and her mother was the first woman director of the State Bank of Pakistan — but her foreign education, she makes it a point to let on, was funded through scholarships.

When she returned to Pakistan, she also returned to the Dawn group. Rehman proudly recalls becoming ‘‘the youngest editor of Herald magazine’’ when she was 28. That was immediately after she took a mere three weeks off to have her first — and only — child. A decade in the job was more than enough for her. So she decided to move on, for a break and her book.

When Benazir asked her to join the PPP, she knew the time was just right. Today, Rehman spends time being a vocal member of the Assembly and travelling between Pakistan and London where hubby — the former head of Citibank in Pakistan — stays with her now 15-year-old daughter. To the question if her husband is Pakistani, she gurgles this reply, ‘‘Of course he is. I wouldn’t marry a gora to save my life. They’re very nice as friends, but imagine marrying one of them.’’

Everything about Rehman screams money and comfort — the classy black and red salwar-kameez, the red shawl draped over her shoulders that she bought this morning to Le Meridien, her hobbies (she collects art and shawls), her London address (Knightsbridge) and the way she chose to spend her time in Delhi at The Imperial though arrangements for the delegation had been made at YMCA. ‘‘Can you imagine?’’ she laughs. ‘‘After walking across the Wagah border, what I needed was a pedicure. It’s not that I haven’t stayed at youth hostels, but I was young then. Ab is umar mein..’’

Her money could afford her a cushy existence in London with her family but she says she ‘‘can’t bear to be away from Pakistan.’’ That’s where Sherry Rehman’s charm lies: in her passion for her home country and her absolute lack of apology for what she does or who she is.

When she was taking the oath in the Assembly, she refused to cover her head. She refuses to adopt her political mentor’s dress code. ‘‘If it offends the mullah to see my head uncovered,’’ she says, ‘‘then he should not look at me.’’ If you have seen her picture, you will know, that looking away is not easy either.