Sednaya Prison caught the public imagination when some of its horrors were recently uncovered by the popular Syrian revolution. [1]
The world reacted in collective revulsion at the stories that were told of unspeakable torture, of small children — barely old enough to know their age — walking out of Assad’s prison.
It was hard to understand how humans could treat another living creature in such a manner.
The story of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui
Assad’s torture chamber was not unique to Syria, nor even the Middle East.
There are similar accounts of torture, sexual violence, and child abduction conducted by the so-called “Home of the Brave”, the “Land of the Free”, not to mention their lackeys.
One such tragic account is of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.
A brilliant woman who was on track for great achievements in academia, until her abduction by Pakistani officials under the instruction of their American paymasters.
An exemplary education amid hardship
Aafia’s story began in the US, where she had studied at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, widely known as MIT. Here, she gained a B.Sc. in biology.
Thereafter, she enrolled at Brandeis University, gaining a PhD in cognitive neuroscience.
Whilst living in America, Aafia and her husband had aroused suspicions but were visited and cleared by the FBI.
Her husband later admitted to purchasing items that had raised concerns by the FBI and receiving large sums of money from Saudi Arabia, but he maintained that these were for innocent purposes.
Sold by Pakistani ISI agents to the Americans
Aafia had endured a troubled marriage, she flew back to Pakistan after it ended.
Whilst due to visit relatives, she was on her way to the airport to fly from Karachi to Islamabad when she was abducted by officers from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
ISI agents then sold this innocent Pakistani woman to the Americans for the handsome sum of around $55,000.
Disgraced General Pervez Musharraf would later boast in his autobiography, how he and his cronies would be the main benefactors of the American bounty programme.
Allah (subḥānahu wa ta’āla) says,
“These are the ones who trade the Hereafter for the life of this world. So their punishment will not be reduced, nor will they be helped.” [2]
Her three children were stolen from her
Awful as all the aforementioned is, the most tragic element of the abduction is that Aafia was not travelling alone: she was with her three small children.
Accompanying her were her eldest son Ahmed, aged six; daughter Maryam, aged four; and a baby boy, aged just six months.
To this day, Ahmed recalls seeing his baby brother lying on the road with blood pouring from his head following the tumult during the abduction, when the young family were wrenched apart.
One child imprisoned, another forcibly adopted by Americans
At six-years-old, Ahmed was kidnapped by Pakistani officials and taken to prison.
The little boy was instructed to pretend that his name was Ali. He was told that should he ever state otherwise, he would be killed.
Aafia’s four-year-old daughter was then taken to Afghanistan and forcibly adopted by a white American couple, likely CIA.
As for her six-month-old baby? To date, neither Aafia nor her family know if Suleman is alive or not.
Repeated violations by men of various ethnicities
Aafia was then taken to Bagram, where she was beaten repeatedly. Such was the severity, she became deaf.
It was also at Bagram that Aafia was sexually assaulted by Afghan prison guards. Rape: it constitutes just four letters, but is a word of such horrific magnitude.
Her story over the last two decades is one of repeated rapes by various men of different ethnicities.
But there is one common thread: unchecked power.
Pakistani, Afghan, and American collusion
After spending five years in Bagram subjected to unspeakable levels of sexual and other kinds of violence, Aafia was — according to her dedicated lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith — framed as a suicide bomber.
Accompanied by a Pakistani intelligence officer, she was taken from Bagram via bus to Ghazni province in Afghanistan.
Her lawyer notes that the ISI agent carried a bag of documents which were intended to frame Aafia in a fictitious terrorist plot which would result in her death.
She was met on the bus by her son, who had been dressed by ISI agents in a large jacket (despite it being the height of summer). The pockets were packed with fruit in order to make him appear like a potential suicide bomber.
The mother, her son in tow, was then placed outside a mosque in Ghazni, and instructed to wait for her daughter whom she had not seen in five years.
An Afghan tailor’s unexpected help
Patiently, Aafia waited for her daughter for nearly seven hours.
Due to the length of her wait stretching into the evening, she caught the attention of a nearby Afghan tailor who spoke Urdu.
He approached her and enquired as to whether she required any help. His eyewitness testimony would later prove critical.
Little did the trio know, a call had been made to the Afghan National Army that a potential suicide bomber was at the mosque in Ghazni.
The army pounced on them. If it were not for the intervention of the tailor, Aafia and her son may well have been killed as suspected suicide bombers.
The tailor pleaded with the Afghan soldiers that this woman had been patiently waiting for several hours for her daughter.
The soldiers ripped off her chador to reveal no weapons, let alone a suicide vest. Likewise, her son — dressed in that heavy winter jacket — only had fruit in his pockets.
ISI ploy fell apart and a weak US tale was made up
The mother and son were taken to a local police station, where we are told that Aafia — a suspected terrorist — was not detained in a secure cell, or at the very least placed in handcuffs. We are told she was merely kept behind a curtain.
We are then asked to believe that one of the American soldiers who arrived at the station for this suspected suicide bomber placed their rifle beside said curtain.
We are told to believe that Aafia sneaked the heavy weapon under the curtain (somehow without anyone realising or hearing) and then was not only able to carry this hefty rifle, but also knew how to turn the safety off before firing at the soldiers.
The soldiers allegedly “returned” fire with a side arm, thereby seriously injuring Aafia.
Clear flaws in the American-led story
There are some gaping holes in this concocted American-Afghan tale, including:
- No rifle bullet casings found at the scene.
- No gunshot residue found on Aafia’s person.
- Soldiers’ weapons do not leave their side in a conflict zone.
And the most disastrous part for the prosecution is that the so-called bullet holes they claim were made by Aafia’s firing of the American rifle were — as evidenced by video footage taken that morning — present before the alleged incident had taken place!
Why was she forcibly taken to America?
Despite the alleged crime of shooting at a US soldier on Afghan soil, Aafia was taken to the US and given a sentence of 86 years, in a civilian trial. The aim of the authorities was essentially for her to die in prison.
To be clear, she was not charged with any terrorism-related offences but rather attempted murder.
Clive Stafford-Smith states that the typical sentence for attempted murder in the US would be around ten years, but the judge in Aafia’s case raised it to 86 years because he had been informed of the unproven terrorism allegations against her.
The brilliant academic, after being brutally ripped from her young children, tortured for five years in Bagram, and the victim of an ISI plot to frame her as a suicide bomber with her own son, was then convicted of a crime many analysts say the evidence for which is barely credible.
She was then taken to the notorious FMC Carswell prison, where at least 13 accounts of rape, including by a Christian minister, have been recorded. [3]
Aafia’s sister is another impressive woman
When her sister, Dr. Fouzia Siddiqui, and the indefatigable Stafford-Smith were finally given permission to see Aafia, she asked about her children as she remembered them: at ages six, four, and six months.
Fouzia has told us that sometimes Aafia — much like mothers across the world do — sets food aside for her children. It seems this once brilliant mind is locked in a time of trauma.
Fouzia herself is another immensely impressive woman. She tirelessly fought to find her niece and nephew. By the grace of God and assistance of Hamid Karzai, the former President of Afghanistan, she located both Ahmed and Maryam.
She raised Ahmed to become a doctor and Maryam is a student in medical school.
Sign the petition for Biden to grant clemency
It is time for those in Pakistan who have obstructed the release of this battered, bruised, and bullied woman to step aside.
Those responsible for her unjust treatment and detention must allow her to be set free so that she can see her only daughter graduate. She must be given the opportunity to attempt to heal from the scars of the last two decades of abuse.
A concerted effort is being made to persuade outgoing US President Biden to pardon Dr. Aafia Siddiqui before he leaves office on around 16 January, so that she can return to Pakistan and be reunited with her family.
A petition calling for this is gaining momentum and has reached 742,000 signatures at the time of writing! Let’s raise our collective voice so that Aafia can hear us in her American dungeon and know that she has a family over two billion strong. [4]
A dream of the Prophet ﷺ
Fouzia recalls that in a phone call between Aafia and their (now deceased) mother, Aafia recounted a dream she had of the Prophet ﷺ, in which she asked when her test would end.
The Prophet ﷺ replied that it was not her test and, when she looked up at him, saw tears in his eyes.
In a hadīth, the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said,
“Whoever relieves a Muslim of a burden from the burdens of this world, Allah will relieve him of a burden from the burdens of the Hereafter.
“And whoever helps ease a difficulty in this world, Allah will grant him ease in this world and in the Hereafter.
“And whoever conceals [the faults of] a Muslim, Allah will conceal his faults in this world and the Hereafter.
“And Allah is engaged in helping the worshipper as long as the worshipper is engaged in helping his brother.” [5]
Source: Islam21c
Notes
[1] https://www.islam21c.com/politics/learning-and-acting-on-syrian-victory/
[2] al-Qur’ān, 2:86
[4] https://www.change.org/p/free-dr-aafia-siddiqui-a-call-for-justice-and-clemency
[5] al-Tirmidhi, 1,930; https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:1930
This is a powerful read on the global issue of human rights abuses. The comparison between Sednaya’s horrors and those from the ‘Home of the Brave’ is incredibly impactful and thought-provoking. It really broadens the perspective on suffering and injustice, making one consider the many brilliant minds locked in time.
Free her
I feel the urgent need to support Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Her brilliance should not be locked away from the world. We must all sign the petition urging President Biden for her clemency.
Allah is Almighty