Soon after the running the Rock 'N Roll
DC Marathon to call attention to the case of political prisoner Dr. Aafia
Siddiqui, I wrote this letter to the Washington Post. I tried very hard to
adhere to their publication guidelines. (I tend to be overly verbose, which may
lead to rejection of a submission, but in this case, I was quite succinct).
And, I thought the topic interesting and timely enough that perhaps the letter
might be published.
Yet, it was not. The Post, like other
corporate media, seems to be clinging to U.S. government dictates to bury
political prisoners. The government refuses to acknowledge the existence of
political prisoners within the U.S., corporate media are the mouth piece of the
government, and therefore political prisoners, as a non-existent group, are
never discussed. Unless and until there is a 180 degree turn in corporate
editorial board policy, letters on political prisoners, especially those who
are Muslim, will continue to go unpublished. And still, I will write.
--------
March
16, 2018
Letter
to the Editor
The
Washington Post
1301
K Street NW
Washington
DC 20071
letters@washpost.com
Dear
Editor,
With
the advent of the MeToo Movement, one would expect the name of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui
and the massive violation of her rights to come to the fore. Dr. Siddiqui is a political
prisoner, currently being held at Carswell USP in Fort Worth, TX. The petite Pakistani
neuroscientist, a graduate of MIT and Brandeis University, was convicted in 2010
of absurd charges which included assaulting seven American servicemen in
Afghanistan, by a New York court riddled with emotion and fear of terrorism.
But
it is Aafia herself who has been terrorized. During her 15-year incarceration,
which includes a period of captivity at a “Secret Prison” in Afghanistan—where,
in violation of international law, her presence was not acknowledged—and she
was therefore subject to all manner of horrors, Aafia, like many of the women
who have come forth in the MeToo Movement, was repeatedly assaulted and raped.
The
primary difference between her and the America women accusers who form the MeToo
Movement is that Aafia is a Muslim woman, and horrifyingly, the assaults
against her occurred while she was in the custody of the U.S., or its Pakistani
and Afghan allies (at U.S. behest). And—unlike the women of the MeToo Movement,
Aafia’s voice remains completely unheard. Held in administrative detention even
as her health deteriorates to dangerous levels, she is allowed almost no
visitors, and zero phone calls or interviews. Her family, who are mostly in
Pakistan, are not permitted to visit or call her. Most bizarrely, her petition
for a new trial, perhaps her last opportunity to seek redress through the legal
system, was withdrawn (ostensibly) by the defendant herself, under suspicious
circumstances.
On
March 10, I, a Pakistani woman marathoner, ran the Rock ‘N Roll DC Marathon to
call attention to Dr. Aafia’s case. It was my 36th marathon, and I dedicated
it to the freedom of this courageous Muslim woman scientist. Approximately 10
months prior, I ran the Boston Marathon in her name. A long-time resident of
the DMV, I traversed DC’s strikingly beautiful streets, starting near the African-American
Museum and the Washington Monument, and ending at RFK Stadium, in a black
long-sleeved tee-shirt reading “Free Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.” I finished the
marathon in 3 hours, 54 minutes, in the top 14% of my division, and qualified
again to run Boston (my 10th time qualifying for that prestigious
race).
In
the course of running 26.2 miles in the nation’s capital for Aafia, questions
raced through my head: In the age of MeToo, Why is Aafia, after all she
suffered, still locked up? As Aafia’s sister, Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui, asked in a recent
International Women’s Day speech, “Is not Aafia also a woman?” Isn’t assault,
rape, and torture a cause for concern if the victim is a Muslim woman prisoner?
If nothing else, the gross pre-trial violation of rights guaranteed to Aafia—under
both the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Convention—cry out for a nullification
of her conviction.
Sincerely,
Nadrat
Siddique
nadratsiddique [at] yahoo [dot] com
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