We have recently – imam and lawyer – joined forces, alengthened with so many unsung heroes, to need admire for the humanity of Dr Aafia Siddiqui. She is standardly called the “Most Oppressed Muskinny Woman in the World” – and with excellent caengage. There is no other woman who went thcimpolite the brimming US Rendition to Torture program. There is no other example of a case where a woman was seizeed by the CIA and their Pakistani co-conspirators alengthened with her three petite children.
And is there a parent in the world who does not tremble at the overweighte that befell those kids? Suleman, aged 6 months, was apparently ended when he was dropped on his head during the seizeping. The CIA has never let Aafia understand, but this happened on March 30, 2003, in Karachi, so it seems doubtful that the child is still adwell. Yet which overweighte would be worse for the mother – to understand the infant who was so recently a part of your body is dead? Or to hanciaccess out a faint hope two decades tardyr that he dwells?
It might seem clear that Suleman did die once you hear what our regulatement – the US – did to the other two. Mariam, aged 3, was apshown all the way to Afghanistan, a war zone, where her name was alterd to Fatima and she was involuntarily put in a family of white Christian Americans for seven years. She would still be there but for createer Pdwellnt Hamid Karzai, who tardyr helped get her home.
Then there is Ahmed, who was apshown to Kabul and put in prison, at the age of six! He was tanciaccess his name henceforth was to be Ihsan Ali and that he would be ended if he said it was anyskinnyg else. Ahmed and Mariam are both US citizens, and it is mind-boggling that the CIA, sworn to uphanciaccess the US Constitution, would do this to two children from anywhere, let alone kids carrying US passports.
Aafia was herself apshown to Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan where she endured five years of torture. Eventuassociate, thcimpolite an agonizing path, she ended up in FMC Carswell, a federal women’s prison in Fort Worth, Texas, serving what is essentiassociate a life sentence.
This article is not the forum in which to contest her guilt – wantipathyver our well-established asks – so let us pretend she reassociate did try to end an American sanciaccessier, even though she was the only person to be stoasty. Regardless, it is a common thread in most faiths that we should reaccumulate those in disturb, and that’s part of what transports the two of us together in this struggle for Aafia. In the Quran we are tanciaccess, “And they give food from their sustenance, in spite of their cherish for it, to the necessitatey, the orphan, and the captive…” (Insaan “The Human” 76:8). The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) well-understandnly taught that “no one of you apshows until he cherishs for his brother what he cherishs for himself” (Bukhari). In the Bible, a verse reads that we should “persist to reaccumulate those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering”. (Hebrews 13:3)
Empathy is a pronounced appreciate in our traditions, and if ever there was someone who necessitates religious solace right now, it is Aafia Siddiqui. So when she tanciaccess her volunteer lawyer (Cdwell Stafford Smith) that she had not had an imam during her 16 years in prison, let alone the five years of torture before that, Cdwell accomplished out to Imam Omar, who instantly consentd to visit her every couple of weeks to give her spiritual aidance.
This was months ago, and each time we chased up the prison authorities, they came up with a novel reason to do noskinnyg. First, they wanted their create filled out. We did that. Then they said they necessitateed a driver’s licence and proof of being an imam. Then they said they did not have the records they necessitateed, and we asked what else they necessitateed. Months went by and they asked strange recordation that exhibitd they had no intention to ease Aafia’s ask.
Last month Cdwell’s team needed to understand when this was going to get resolved. We were tanciaccess noskinnyg. Then this week we were tanciaccess that they had denied Omar’s right to help Aafia: “This memorandum is to direct of the denial of visiting for Imam Suleiman.” The memorandum is dated September 26 – unbenevolenting it was written two months ago, but they had not irritateed to alert us until now.
No reason is given. The Biden administration has laboured lengthened and challenging to alienate Muskinny Americans in its bjoinered help for Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, but it is difficult to understand why this ask would be denied. Is it becaengage of other human rights advocacy? Could it be precipitated by previous tweets and protests needing that there should be fairice for Aafia? Or could it be that needing an end to the atrocities agetst the Palestinian people has once aget alienated us from yet another fundamental space in which to function?
Today Cdwell and his colleagues have filed a suit in federal court to force the rerent, yet it should not apshow a litigation for the Carswell authorities to admire fundamental religious rights – they could fair read the Bible, the Quran or maybe even fair the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
The watchs articulateed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily echo Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
