Remembering Dr. Aafia Siddiqui

The following is a touching letter written by a sister in Pakistan regarding the case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui

Just at a walking distance from my office is present the house of a family in terrible suffering, a family who needs the state to which they paid their taxes to ensure their safety, peaceful living and sense of living normal life like any other; a family who is now a question mark to where we all pay our taxes? The family needs well-do support from people of the state known as Islamic Republic of Pakistan, who needs attention of Ummah but are now forced to rely on only prayers. The seventh biggest army of the world and pride of Muslim Ummah has now become a real question mark to every common family who lived under and paid taxes to the state which has a leadership and system both but yet no shame and honor. Yes I am talking about the family of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui; her name is not new for any of us. We all know what has happened to her and the terrible ordeal she along with her three innocent children have gone through.

I am not a paid writer but today I was moved and deeply touched, today I have great burden on my heart after visiting the family for a Dua (prayer gathering) that had been organized by them. I feel restless as I write this but yet I need to do something. For how long will we stay silent as our Muslim sisters are insulted and Ummah is tortured in whole? It’s too late even to say now or never.

The program kicked off with a wonderful dua of uniting whole Muslims’ lands under one roof of Islamic state Caliphate, then after that Dr Aafia's mother started giving Dars. The face of that old, innocent mom still revolves in my eyes, Ismat Aunty as they call her: what a courageous lady. Each and every word of her echoes in my ears, her tears make me restless as she talked about her lovely daughter. Even amidst such a calamity she kept thanking the Lord for having given her daughter such a high status for we all know that Allah tests whom he wishes to; He tests us too whether we sit quiet or stand up for her and many others. She kept saying that Aafia now sees very pleasant dreams. She has quite often dreamt of Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq (RAA) and Hazrat Ibraheem(AS). She told all present how sensitive her daughter was, she used to get her clothes made of Egyptian cotton because she was unable to wear hard cloth but now her brother saw how ruthlessly their sister is tied in shackles and chains. Tears kept coming in the eyes of all ladies that were present at the occasion; we felt guilt and a terrible pain in our hearts. We whom the Quran declares as the best of nations are silently watching our sister Aafia being ruthlessly tortured.

Ismat Aunty told us that whenever the door bell of her house rings she rushes to the door saying, "Meri Aafia aa gayee, meri Aafia aa gayee!" At times her heart feels comforted when she feels the Lord is saying to her, "Why do you cry? I love her more than you and I am with her."

The tortures that Aafia has gone through and is still going through are unimaginable.......her only fault was being a Muslim and this was enough for FBI to issue a whole charge sheet against the holder of 75 awards and an MIT Muslimah graduate known as Dr. Aafia Siddiqui: a charge sheet full of horrible lies and absurd fairy tales. The so-called civilized leadership of USA and the place where people yearn to go to is so horrible.............her mother even told us that she recently received a phone call of an American and he said, "The Americans fear that Aafia's children would be as sharp as her mother so they are thinking of making her permanently infertile."

She spoke of Asma bint Abu Bakr(RAA) who sacrificed her son for the cause of Islam, she spoke of the great martyrs from the family of the Prophet i.e. Hazrat Imam Hussain(RAA) and his supporters. I was astonished to see an old lady whose daughter has been held captive for more than 5 years now and yet she was so full of courage and love for the Ummah. She introduced us to Dr. Aafia's 11-year old son Muhammad Ahmed: the child doesn't speak much but he is a ray of hope for his Naani and aunt Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui. The years that a child spends in playing with toys, in developing his personality and in learning new things have been spent in a horrible prison structured by self proclaimed world's best cultured society USA full of terrible and merciless people: who will return all these years to Muhammad Ahmed? Who will bring US leadership to justice? The child still seems as if he is new to this world, will he ever get back to normal; he has even forgotten his mother and his brothers and sisters for all these years when he was 6 years old up to now he has been kept in a torture cell and was separated from the rest of his family from day one.

The family is now really worried about Dr. Aafia's daughter who was 4 years old when she was handed over to the FBI by none other than Islamic Republic of Pakistan's forces in the name of "War Against Terror" which is now even more clear that whose war this is, who are the friends and who is the enemy. Was Ahmed a terror for them? Really!! ..... Ahmed's sister is now growing up and this is what makes Dr. Fauzia more restless as no good can be expected from the dark age that USA is going through and what they did to Dr. Aafia is not an unknown matter. During the gathering I and a friend of mine asked about the daughter and why can’t she be traced, the reply was even worse than any Muslim could expect. Aafia's sister replied, because there were many pictures that were shown to us of age 9 and it’s extremely a guess work to say anything from pictures since we only have picture of the time when she was 4. Now question comes to my mind who were the other young girls? What’s happening? Whose war is this and who is being captured? Where are we standing today? Was Pakistan only meant to save our daughters and sisters from Hindus, and who knows what happens in Kashmir too?

In end there was once again a nice and pleasant dua for the unification of Ummah under one roof of Islamic State Khilafah and an urge to all Muslim sisters not to be afraid of any one anymore.

This event made me think; if rulers are from us, then who will do this with our sisters and daughters, if we can bring a change by studying and through education then why MIT graduate with extreme talent of holding 75 awards suffered this and Pakistan's own government handed her over to such a place and to such leadership of the world and; why did not they honor her as an esteemed Pakistani. Why Abdul Qadeer after inventing nuclear bomb suffers that much? I guess the answer lies in Dua that sandwiched the whole gathering.

By A Muslim Sister,
Arjumand Younus.
11th October, 2008.