Can’t we bring Aafia Siddiqui back?
AAFIA Siddiqui graduated with honors from MIT, and later enjoyed an equally successful academic career at Brandeis University – where she graduated again with honours with a PhD in cognitive neuroscience. In addition to her academic prowess, Dr Aafia Siddiqui was known for her commitment to dawah (teaching and spreading the message of Islam), and her humanitarian relief work – particularly after the political crisis erupted in Bosnia in the early to mid-90s. In 2002, after 12 fruitful years in the United States, Dr Aafia Siddiqui and her family decided to return home, Pakistan. By this time she was married with two American-born children (Ahmed and Maryam) and pregnant with a third child (Suleman). Tragically, it appears that her academic achievement, activism and commitment to Islam, caused a post 9/11 cloud of suspicion to accompany her and her family on that fateful journey home.
In March 2003, Dr Aafia Siddiqui and her three young children (ages 6, 4, and six months) got into a taxi in Karachi, Pakistan, bound for the airport to visit a maternal uncle in Islamabad. They never made it. The taxi was stopped, all four were forcibly removed, and then they disappeared for the next five years. The day after the kidnapping, Aafia’s family received an ominous visit from a mysterious biker who bore a threatening message. When Aafia’s mother answered the door he warned, If you ever want to see your daughter and grandchildren again, be quiet!
In the summer of 2008, following disclosure that a Pakistani woman was being secretly held prisoner at the Bagram Detention Centre in Afghanistan, Dr. Siddiqui was released from captivity in a weakened and disheveled state; reunited with her son (Ahmed), and then set up to be killed. She ended up being shot by an American soldier in Afghanistan under highly questionable circumstances. Following emergency treatment, she was brought back to America, barely clinging to life, and charged with attempting to murder US personnel (i.e. soldiers, FBI, CIA) in Afghanistan.
During the trial that took place in a US District Court in New York City in 2010, the most compelling evidence was in Dr Siddiqui’s favour, and the government’s star witnesses contradicted themselves, and each other, so much (under oath) that they should have been charged with perjury. Regrettably, the unrelenting pre-trial propaganda against “Lady al-Qaeda,” as some of the media dubbed her, coupled with a federal judge (Richard Berman) who was openly biased against her from start to finish, made a “fair trial” virtually impossible.
The five missing years (2003-2008) were ordered off-limits during the trial; the forensic and circumstantial evidence was ignored; and Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was found guilty and given a sentence of 86 years. She is currently imprisoned at FMC Carswell – an institution located on a military base in Fort Worth, Texas – completely cut off from the outside world. It should also be noted that Judge Berman has officially closed her case to the appeals process.
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui does not enjoy the same visitation rights as other prisoners; even mail that is sent to her gets returned. Her physical and mental health is not good. Her family and supporters have asked the government to allow an independent medical team into FMC Carswell for her examination, but so far without success. Her two older children (Ahmed and Maryam) were returned to the family home in 2008 and 2010, respectively. The youngest child (Suleman) is still missing to this day and presumed dead. Without seeing Aafia, her parents passed away .
Incarcerated Aafia Siddiqui met her sister Fauzia Siddiqui after 20 long years. Aafia has lost her front teeth in an assassination attempt and face difficulties in hearing. Aafia Siddiqui is currently being detained at the infamous FMC Carswell prison. A long journey of 20 years has at last started bearing fruit as Dr Aafia Siddiqui has been granted the right to meet her family. While meeting her sister, Dr Fauzia was neither allowed to touch her sister nor was she allowed to show her the pictures of Dr Aafia’s children. Both the sisters met in a room separated with a thick glass wall. Aafia was wearing beige jail dress and a white scarf.
Aafia was not in good condition and it took almost an hour for Aafia to state what she had been through every day. She was waiting to meet her mother and children and she did not even know that her mother has died almost a year ago. Dr Aafia has been pressurized through different torturous techniques to speak up about the things she does not even know. Although Dr Fauzia explained what she has come to know in the recent meeting but still a lot of mysteries are yet to be uncovered. Things would become clear gradually as the meetings are expected to continue with Senator Mushtaq Ahmad next in line.
Pakistan should not leave any stone unturned to get Dr Aafia Siddiqui out of jail. We need to meet different personalities to voice concern about the miseries being faced by Dr Aafia. Pakistani nation should stand up for justice for Aafia. The issue should be raised at diplomatic level with the US government. In July – August 2014, over 110,000 people from all over America – Muslims and non-Muslims – signed a “We The People” Petition on the White House website that called for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s release and repatriation. Among her supporters is the former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who has described the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui as, “The worst case of individual injustice I have ever witnessed.” Dr. Aafia Siddiqui has become a growing symbol of concern and grievance for Muslims and non-Muslims of goodwill around the world. if such a monstrous injustice could happen to a woman like her, and continue for as long as it has, none of us are safe!
—The writer is editor, book ambassador political analyst and author of several books based in Islamabad.
Email: naveedamankhan@hotmail.com
