Oh damn. Damn damn damn. Asma Jahangir has died.

Prominent Pakistani human rights activist and lawyer Asma Jahangir has died at the age of 66.

She reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest and was taken to hospital, where she later died.

The pro-democracy activist championed women’s rights throughout her career.

She was imprisoned in 1983 and put under house arrest in 2007. Five years ago, leaked documents suggested that some intelligence officers had planned to kill her.

Ms Jahangir called for an inquiry at the time, demanding the government “find the forces who wanted to silence” her.

More recently she spoke out against BBC Persian journalists being put on trial in Iran, as part of her role as UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran.

Pakistan cannot afford to lose any human rights activists, especially female ones.

Heartbroken that we lost Asma Jahangir – a saviour of democracy and human rights.

I met her a week ago in Oxford. I cannot believe she is no more among us. The best tribute to her is to continue her fight for human rights and democracy. pic.twitter.com/Tf7VOYfvq5

— Malala Yousafzai (@Malala) February 11, 2018

https://twitter.com/OmarWaraich/status/962623502678351872

In her career, Ms Jahangir was a staunch defender of human rights and women’s rights, and a pro-democracy activist, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

She worked closely with her sister Hina Jilani on many of her endeavours.

In 2014 Ms Jahangir told AFP news agency she had seen changes in the perception of human rights in Pakistan.

“There was a time that human rights was not even an issue in this country,” she said. “Then prisoners’ rights became an issue.”

“Women’s rights was thought of as a Western concept. Now people do talk about women’s rights.”

Women are human beings everywhere, including Pakistan.