"A Shade Of Gray "

Aafia siddiqui is an American educated Pakistani Neuroscientist, who did her M.I.T BS in biology in 1995 and did her PhD in 2001 from Brandies. She was not only the Board member of the Institute of Islamic Research and Teaching but was a devout Muslim who had engaged in Islamic charity work and proselytizing in the U.S.

The dilemma is how a young, sophisticated and highly educated woman got spun into the vicious cycle and now is recognized as the “Big Catch” of Al-Qaeda?

“Hope is the thing in feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson

The question today is whether this hope prevails with Dr Aafia Siddiqui? Does she herself believe that will she ever get out of this agony or misery? Will she ever be able to see her family or children again? Or most importantly will she ever RECOVER?I will not only unlike other articles shed light on the injustices done to her and her family but will present both sides of the picture, an effort to familiarize our readers with this saga and how it unfolds till the date. The satire is that the current case rests on a crime she committed after she was arrested in 2008 by the Americans in Afghanistan but the reality is that she was abducted in 2003 by the FBI agents in Karachi. She was accused of Assault and attempted murder of U.S. nationals, officers, and employees; An Assault with a deadly weapon carrying and using a firearm. How can a women weighing 110 pounds is able to put up a fight against highly trained army officials, manages to strike a fire from the rifle, hurting none of the officials but the irony is that she is the one who severely got injured by getting shot two times in the stomach.

The second question that keeps occurring in our minds over and over again is was Dr Aafia Arrested or Abducted? One aspect is that she was kidnapped by the FBI Agents in Karachi, but even if that is the case it is of no doubt that the Government of Pakistan was unaware about this. The other side of the story is equally grim and shameful. It was General Musharraf and the leaders of an elite intelligence agency who arrested Dr Siddiqui along with her children presented her as a gift to the US military in one of the most disgraceful acts ever committed by the head of an Islamic country or by the ruler of any country. Referring to Pervez Musharraf’s Book (Memoir) published in 2007 “The line of Fire” stated “We have caught many al-Qaeda members and Afghanis, some are known and some are not. We have captured 689 and handed over 369 to United States. We have earned bounties totaling millions of Dollars.”

The problem aroused when a British Journalist Yvonne Ridley in the press conference held in Pakistan shared the story of the Prisoner 650, The Gray Ghost Lady of Bagram prison. After Yvonne Ridley’s press conference, it became evident that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was the unfortunate soul to bear the worst kind of treatment in the modern history of the world. A well educated lady raped and tortured continuously for 5 consecutive years by the hands of American military and intelligence officials. Quoted Directly by Ridely "And her ordeal of torture and repeatedly being raped for over four years. “The cries of (this) helpless woman echoed (with such torment) in the jail that (it) prompted prisoners to go on hunger strike.” Ridley called her a “gray lady (because) she (was) almost a ghost, whose cries and screams continue to haunt those who heard her.” My question is if this so called crime was to be done by British women would she have gone through the same torment and torture as Aafia did? It is true that she was involved with the Al-Qaeda on technical grounds she was just a fixer (transfer funds for al-Qaeda) but not an actual member, but did the U.S officials forget that she is a women? Or human infact? On August 7, 2008, Iqbal Haider, Co-chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expressed concern about her. “He called it shocking and of grave concern that pictures of her show a beat-up frail and helpless woman, the effects of years of torture, abuse, and continuous rape. There are dark circles under her eyes, a badly repaired broken nose, “made up” teeth and crumbled lips, and overall “a picture of a severely dehydrated, sick person almost as if on the death bed”. It shows the inhumane brutality of an apparently civilized nation by the administration of a country which claims to be much civilized.

In which book of law is it stated that such criminal behavior is JUSTIFIED? Torturing her is one thing but her children suffering the same brutality is just out of question. Killing her six months old son, mentally torturing his eldest son, which is the soul reason her children are not allowed to speak publically, what part of serving the justice did they fit into?

There are tonnes of unanswered queries, tonnes of hypothesis creating different scenarios but sometimes there are no words, no clever quotes to neatly sum up what happened that day….sometimes the day just ends. The outcome of the case is very important since the eyes of the world Muslim population and those who believe in the American justice system are fixed on this case as a benchmark.

Let’s see if Justice prevails in the Wild Wild West!

Sumbla Tayyab.
Section H
BBA II