The first female prime minister of a Muslim country, Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) helped to move Pakistan from a dictatorship to democracy in 1977. She sought to implement social reforms, in particular helping women and the poor. She was forced out of office on corruption charges which she adamantly denied – and of which she was absolved. The eldest child of the late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, she studied law at Oxford. She was sworn in as Prime Minister in 1988, but left office 20 months later. In 1993 she was re-elected but again removed in 1996 by political opponents resisting her human rights stance. She went into self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998. She returned on October 18, 2007, but was assassinated on December 27, 2007, two weeks before an election she was expected to win. Although she suffered significant frustration as she fought to bring democracy and freedom to Pakistan, she remains an inspiration for her determination to improve conditions in her homeland – in the face of impossible odds.