Yazidi Woman Awarded Not-So-Nobel Prize

Nadia Murad, an Iraqi Yazidi woman was selected to receive the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month. It is instructive that:

1) Iraq has a population of 37,000,000 (37 million) people, all of whom have lived under U.S. occupation and war/ proxy-war since 2003. Off those millions, the Nobel committee selected a clear Islam-hater;

2) Of that population (37 million), 90% are Muslim. (Yazidis, by comparison, form 2% of the population.) Vast segments of the Muslim population have fought back against the U.S. occupation and war, often times in ways which demonstrated extraordinary courage and heroism. (Despite the pervasive labels and propaganda against fighters who oppose U.S. power, fighting a superpower with vastly great force of arms can only be described as heroic, and in any other era--e.g. the Warsaw Ghetto, the Algerian Civil War, etc.--would be viewed as an act of courage.)

Comparable to the Palestinian children throwing rocks at Israeli tanks, Iraqis (in the early days of the war) armed with only IEDs would launch themselves upon U.S. APCs and tanks--but only after the U.S. dropped 50,000 bombs and missiles on Baghdad in just over a month's period. And yet not one Muslim fighting occupation and oppression was deemed worthy of the Nobel committee's consideration;

3) Iraqi Muslim women suffered perhaps the most as a result of the U.S. occupation and war; and many of them have fought back against the terror enacted upon them by a Superpower terror. Again, not one of them was deemed worthy of the Nobel award.

Only Nadia Murad was deemed worthy. After she visited Israel (in a trip to witness the enacting of legislation protecting Yazidis, an incredible irony in a state which practices apartheid against Palestinians), she returned to Germany where she currently resides. Shortly after that, she was notified by the Nobel Committee of her award. In response, she said, "I am incredibly honored and humbled by their support and I share this award with all Yazidis with all the Iraqis, Kurds and all the minorities and all survivors of sexual violence around the world." Oddly, she uttered not one word against those who had occupied and steadily destroyed and destabilized her country since 1991.

If it were up to me, Abeer an-Janabi, the 14-year old Iraqi girl raped and burned to death by U.S. troops in 2006 (all of her family were killed by U.S. troops in the same incidentj) would have received the Nobel. Posthumously, if there is such a thing as a posthumous Nobel. THAT would have restored the dignity of the Nobel.

© 2018 Nadrat Siddique

One Woman for Aafia

 By Nadrat Siddique

October 5, 2018

Chicago, IL

As I was in Chicago to run the Chicago Marathon for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, I decided a stop at the Pakistani Consulate was in order. The Consulate is located on the seventh floor of a high rise building on Michigan Avenue, a vibrant and bustling street in Chicago's downtown. Interestingly, there didn't seem to be any other consulates in the area.

Just as I arrived, a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest passed, proceeding quickly onto E. Wacker Avenue (the site of many of the organization’s protests). The protestors chanted slogans deriding the killer police. Earlier that afternoon, in a radical departure from the norm of impunity, a police officer was convicted in the death of an innocent Black man. I itched to join the BLM march, but knew I must fulfill the purpose for which I had come to Chicago: to call attention to the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, an innocent Pakistani Muslim woman scientist entering her 15^th year of illegal detention. As the BLM march disappeared from view, my heart went with it.

I stood in front of the Pakistan Consulate, a silent one-woman protest, my sign calling for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui's freedom. The security guard, a heavy set Black man asked me to move away from the building. He gestured that I should stand closer to the Starbucks which was next door. I naively told him I was there for the Pakistan Consulate, and not Starbucks. He insisted I move away from the Consulate entrance. I really didn't want to be in front of Starbucks, so I re-positioned directly in front of the Consulate, but closer to the street side.

The only problem was that the street side was lined with police officers. Chicago panicked whenever Black people marched for justice. The heavy police presence there was in anticipation of "riots," Orwellian Double-Speak for Black protesters making Whites uncomfortable.

I was not eager to be in close proximity to the cops, so I temporarily moved towards Starbucks. Thankfully, the cops cleared out shortly thereafter, and I returned to my position closer to the Consulate.

As it was late Friday afternoon (the one woman protest for Aafia was 4:00 - 6:00 PM), I saw only a small handful of Pakistani officials emerge from the building. A few glanced in my direction, but it was not clear if I made a dent.

Soon after I arrived, a Pakistani couple passed me and went into the Starbucks. The wife was in full niqab. They remained in the coffee shop for some while. When they came out, I was in plain view in front of the Starbucks. They did not bat an eye, and continued on their way.

During the two-hour protest, hundreds, if not thousands, of  pedestrians walked by me. Others were in cars or buses. Many of those on foot turned around for a second look at my sign. A few cars honked their horn for me to turn toward them, so that they could read my sign (if it was not oriented in their direction at the time that they passed). Many made eye contact, which I returned with a smile. Some gave me a nod or a thumbs-up.

The ordinary (ie non-consular) Pakistanis who passed by were of two extremes: The first group were those who were overtly interested, and stared or turned around for a second look at my "Free Dr. Aafia Siddiqui" sign after they had passed. The second group was completely disinterested (or at least feigned disinterest).

I was surprised to see how many of the passersby were extremely fit runners. They were there to run the Chicago marathon that Sunday. They came from all over the country, and were notable by the race packets--distributed by all major races--slung over their shoulders. Many of them wore Boston Marathon jackets, indicating they had completed that illustrious race. Others wore the blue-colored 2018 Chicago Marathon commemorative shirt. Many of the runners passed my one-woman "Free Aafia" protest with looks of interest on their faces. We runners--particularly marathoners--tend to be very narcissistic. Also, marathons charge on average $100 registration fee, making marathoning an expensive hobby, and as a result largely the dominion of the well-to-do. I wondered how many of my fellow Chicago Marathon participants would stand for a cause higher than themselves, particularly a political prisoner whose false imprisonment their tax dollars subsidized.

As it was my first visit to the Pakistani Consulate, I didn’t realize it lay in the path taken by many marathoners leaving the McCormick Center (where packet pickup for the marathon was held). The marathon had not even started, and inadvertently I’d introduced a large number of runners to the Aafia case.

As I left the Consulate and headed to the nearby subway station, I prayed that the newly elected Pakistani government would reverse the ignominies of its predecessors, and work to free Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. It was a shame and a travesty that a Muslim nation had allowed one of its most innocent and vulnerable citizens to languish for 15 years in American, Pakistani, and Afghan prisons, all without just cause. I prayed that all those complicit in her torment would be punished by Allah Almighty.

© 2018 Nadrat Siddique