In 1977 Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan intending to begin a career in the Foreign Service. Ten days after her return, martial law was declared - her father was arrested on a murder charge and she was placed under house arrest. Benazir Bhutto became the focus for his followers and, from jail, he continued to advise her what to say to the crowds. After he was hanged in 1979 she felt that she must follow him as leader of the Pakistan People's Party. For seven years she was either under house arrest or in exile in Britain. In 1986 she returned to Pakistan and entered an arranged marriage, the following year the first elections for eleven years were announced.

"I had fought a military dictatorship. It was a Muslim country with very strong patriarchal tendencies. There were tribal areas, there had been the war in Afghanistan with the Mullahs, so it was a very big challenge to convince those who were not with us that women in the world of today could do as well as anyone else."