Fatima Bhutto

Her non-fiction book Songs of Blood and Sword, released in 2010, is about her family. Bhutto has written for The News and The Guardian among other publications.

• Name — Fatima Bhutto • Born — 29 May 1982 • Birthplace — Kabul, Afghanistan • Occupation — Writer, columnist • Education — Barnard College (BA) University of London (MA) • Relatives — Bhutto family • Mother — Ghinwa Bhutto • Father — Murtaza Bhutto

Bhutto was born on 29 May 1982 to Murtaza Bhutto and his Afghan wife, Fauzia Fasihudin Bhutto, the daughter of Afghanistan's former foreign affairs official in Kabul. Her father was in exile during the military regime of general Zia-ul-Haq. Her parents divorced when she was three years old and her father took Bhutto with him, moving from country to country and she grew up effectively stateless. Her father met Ghinwa Bhutto, a Lebanese ballet teacher in 1989 during his exile in Syria and they married. Bhutto considers Ghinwa as her real mother. Her half-brother Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr. is an artist. Bhutto is the granddaughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Nusrat Bhutto, an Iranian Kurd, niece of Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari, and Shahnawaz Bhutto. Her father was killed by the police in 1996 in Karachi during the premiership of his sister, Benazir Bhutto. Her biological mother Fauzia Fasihudin unsuccessfully tried to gain parental custody of Bhutto. She lives with her stepmother in Old Clifton, Karachi. Bhutto received her secondary education at the Karachi American School. She received a B.A. degree summa cum laude, majoring in Middle Eastern and Asian languages and cultures from Barnard College in New York, United States, in 2004. She received her M.A. in South Asian Studies from the SOAS, University of London in 2005, there she wrote her dissertation on the resistance movement in Pakistan.

In 2009, it was reported that she was in a relationship with George Clooney, but neither she nor Clooney ever confirmed their relationship. On 27 April 2023, Bhutto married American national Graham Byra, who adopted the name Gibran following his conversion to Islam. The ceremony was held in Fatima's ancestral home in Karachi. Byra holds a Master of Arts in organizational psychology from Columbia University. Regarding her religious faith, Bhutto has stated that she is a cultural Muslim and describes herself as a secularist. She has defended Islam on many occasions and supported Muslim women's right to wear burqa.