DR AAFIA SIDDIQUI

THE IMPRISONED
DAUGHTER
OF UMMAH
 Overview

01 02 03 04
Introduction Education and Mission Life After Kidnap The Events After
Kidnap and the Truth
Behind It

05 06 07 08
Her Children The Conduct of Our Dr Fouzia's Meeting The Conduct of the
Leaders Muslim Ummah and
Things to Do
Introduction
Aafia Siddiqui was born on March 2, 1972, in Karachi
to a Sunni Muslim family. Her parents were a Pakistani
middle-class family with a strong faith in Islam and
education.
Her father, Mohammad Salay Siddiqui, was a doctor,
and her mother, Ismet, was said to be a confidante of
General Zia ul-Haq.
Dr Aafia was an impassioned Muslim activist who was
devoted to social work and improving the lives of
others.
Dr Aafia was a Hafiz-e-Quran and an an exceptionally
intelligent and driven individual.
Education and
Mission
Aafia Siddiqui came to the United States of
America from Karachi Pakistan in 1990. She
resided with her older brother, Muhammad, in Dr. Siddiqui was known for her
Houston (Texas), and distinguished herself as an commitment to dawah (teaching and
outstanding freshman at the University of spreading the message of Islam), and her
Houston, earning a full scholarship in 1991 to humanitarian relief work.
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr Aafia's mission was to revolutionize the
education system of Pakistan. She had
Aafia Siddiqui graduated with honors from MIT, planned to develop a thorough syllabus
and later enjoyed an equally successful academic which included vast knowledge including
career at Brandeis University – where she an introduction of all religions as well as
graduated (again with honors) with a PhD in incorporated the detailed study of the
cognitive neuroscience. In addition to her Quran
academic prowess,
 In 2002, after 12 fruitful years in the United States, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and her family decided to return
01 Pakistan. By this time she was married with two American-born children (Ahmed and Maryam) and

Life After Kidnap

pregnant with a third child (Suleman). Tragically, it appears that her academic achievement, activism,
and commitment to Islam, caused a post 9/11 cloud of suspicion to accompany her and her family.

02 In March 2003, Dr. Siddiqui and her three young children (ages 6, 4, and six months) got
into a taxi in Karachi, Pakistan, bound for the airport to visit a maternal uncle in Islamabad.
They never made it. The taxi was stopped, all four were forcibly removed, and then they
disappeared for the next five years.

In the summer of 2008, following disclosure that a Pakistani woman was being secretly
03 held prisoner at the Bagram Detention Center in Afghanistan, Dr. Siddiqui was released
from captivity in a weakened and disheveled state; reunited with her son (Ahmed), and
then set up to be killed. She ended up being shot by an American soldier in Afghanistan
under highly questionable circumstances. Following emergency treatment she was brought
back to America, barely clinging to life, and charged with attempting to murder US
personnel (i.e. soldiers, FBI, CIA) in Afghanistan.

The five missing years (2003-2008) were ordered off-limits during the trial; the forensic
04 and circumstantial evidence was ignored; and Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was found guilty and given
a sentence of 86 YEARS. She is currently imprisoned at FMC Carswell – an institution
located on a military base in Fort Worth, Texas – completely cut off from the outside world.
It should also be noted that Judge Berman has officially closed her case to the appeals
process.

05 is sent to her gets returned. There are credible reports that her health (both physical and
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui does not enjoy the same visitation rights as other prisoners; even mail that

mental) is not good. Her two oldest children (Ahmed and Maryam) were returned to the
family home in 2008 and 2010, respectively. The youngest child (Suleman) is still missing to
this day and presumed dead. Aafia’s father passed away years ago, and as one would expect,
an increasingly frail mother grieves over her missing child and wonders if she will ever be able
to see her again.
 The Events After Kidnap and
the Truth Behind It
Her sentencing sparked a heavy public outrage in Pakistan. Dr. Aafia was chosen at random based on orders given to the CIA
The masses saw her as a victim of the US criminal justice by Irving Lowenstein, an Israeli citizen, son of an investment
system. Religious parties and their supporters staged banker, acting as National Security Advisor to President Bush (43)
demonstrations and rallies against the United States. Lowenstein. In 1999, General Musharraf seized power in Pakistan,
Newspapers wrote about her "torture", parliament passed almost simultaneous with the planned coup against the US
resolutions, placard-waving demonstrators pounded the government a year later After 9/11, Musharraf declared war on
streets, and the government spent $2 million on a top-flight Islamic fundamentalism and began accepting wide financial
defence. support from Jewish organizations within the US

She was shot in the trunk when a warrant officer returned fire. In
In order to gain favor with the Bush regime, which had
fact, US authorities claimed that she was hospitalized, treated
seized power in the US as he had in Pakistan, Musharraf
after this attempted attack. Later, she was deported to the US for
tasked rogue units of the ISI with kidnapping innocent
final trial. In September 2008, she was indicted on false charges
civilians and selling them, at $55,000 apiece, to the CIA to
of assault and attempted murder of a US soldier in the police
be imprisoned and tortured Dr. Aafia'a alleged crime was
station in Ghazni but she categorically denied all charges leveled
that she allegedly shot at visiting US FBI and Army
against her. Finally, she was convicted on 3rd February 2010 for
personnel with anM4 carbine one of the interrogators had
her attempted murder and later sentenced to 86 years in prison.
placed on the floor by his feet.
 Her Children

Ahmed Mariam Suleman

Dr. Aafia last saw her Mariam was also There are no clear leads
son in 2003. Both returned to Pakistan for this child as he
Ahmed and Mariam after Dr. Aafia's arrest. continues to be
were returned to In the current year missing.
Pakistan Mariam has progressed Despite many rumours,
Ahmed graduated as a to 4th year in her there has been no
doctor in the year 2023 eduation. official sighting of him.
The Conduct of
Our Leaders
Addressing the press conference along with Dr Aafia
Siddiqui’s sister, Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, Mr Smith, Aafia's lawyer
said Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who was ‘abducted’ in 2003, “holds
no special importance for the US” and it’s the government
of Pakistan that didn’t do enough to bring her back. In the
current year Dr Fowzia met with and briefed the PM
2020 2022
Shehbaz on the steps she intended to take to expedite the
2023
release of Dr Aafia.

While he emphasised the government’s unwavering commitment to

extend full cooperation in the pursuit of justice for Dr Aafia and
assured that every effort would be made to ensure her well-being
and release, it is clear that no solid, genuine efforts have been made
to rescue Dr. Aafia from her years-long plight. Dr Aafia had been
detained without any reason for the past two decades but none of
the rulers ever bothered to meet her in the prison.
It seems that the Pakistani governing bodies never even made an
official plea for the release of Dr. Aafia thus becoming agents of a
severe miscarriage of justice.
The meeting between the two sisters and doctors highlights their persistent struggle for freedom
and offers a renewed sense of urgency in the quest for justice. In a deeply poignant and emotional
reunion, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui — a Pakistani national unjustly detained by US authorities on questionable
allegations of terrorism — finally had the opportunity to meet her sister, Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui, after Dr Fowzia's
Meeting
two decades of separation.

The meeting, which took place on 31 May and was facilitated by her international lawyer, Clive
Stafford Smith OBE, served as a stark reminder of the abject failure of both the US and Pakistani
governments in delivering justice to Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and releasing her from prison. The celebrated
scientist has been subjected to torture and abuse, and has languished in prison for two decades.
Despite the long-awaited meeting, the circumstances of the reunion were far from ideal.

According to Dr. Fowzia, Dr. Aafia was escorted into the guest area of the prison wearing a white
hijab, a brown prison uniform, and white joggers. Her upper teeth were missing from a 2021 prison
assault and, as a result of the horrific beating she endured, had difficulty hearing. In the first hour of
the bittersweet reunion, Dr. Aafia detailed the daily trauma she faced in the prison.

And in a harrowing reflection of the wrongly imprisoned neuroscientist’s lack of up-to-date contact
or information about loved ones, Dr. Aafia told Dr. Fowzia, “I miss my family everyday. My mother,
my father, you (my sister), my children, I think of them all the time.”

Their father — also a medical doctor and surgeon — passed away some years ago, but this painful
information has not been shared with Dr. Aafia for obvious reasons. Although the two sisters would
go on to reminisce for two-and-a-half hours, the memories Dr. Aafia has of her family are
permanently frozen at the time of her abduction and disappearance in 2003.

Dr. Fowzia and lawyer Clive Stafford Smith would go on to visit Dr. Aafia over the next two days,
after which the pair would discuss what could be done to hasten the release of the respected
neuroscientist and graduate of MIT and Brandeis universities.
 The Conduct of the Muslim
Ummah and Things to Do
The trial and suffering of Dr. Aafia is a test for the whole Ummah.
The case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is one of the darkest and most
horrific examples of the horrors, injustices, and excesses of the
United States’ so-called ‘War on Terror’..

Dr Aafia’s case continues to be a dark stain on the so-called justice systems which have enabled her persecution. Her haunting story has been invisible amongst the
‘freedom’ and ‘justice’ movements. Moreover, her case like many others has taken a back seat in our priorities as an Ummah. The obligation to help the oppressed and
free those unjustly imprisoned is a command from Allah (SWT), therefore, it is imperative that Aafia Siddiqui, ‘the most wronged woman in the world’ is freed and has
her injustice voiced internationally. The obligation to free prisoners, especially those who have been unjustly imprisoned at the hands of oppressors, is emphasised in
the Qur’an and Sunnah.

“And what is wrong with you that you fight not in the Cause of Allah, and for those weak, ill-treated and oppressed among men, women, and children, whose cry
is: “Our Lord! Rescue us from this town whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from You one who will protect, and raise for us from You one who will
help.” [1]

The Power Of Our Du’ās

Dr Aafia is a noble mother, hafiza of Qur’an, dā’ī of Islam, an accomplished neuroscientist, and much more.Given all the hardship and suffering she has faced we pray
fervently that she remains steadfast with Allah’s decree, hopeful in His mercy and optimistic in the Ummah. The fact that such noble and heroic figures, who have
suffered such persecution and sacrificed so much for Allah’s sake, still exist in our Ummah should fill us with confidence and pride that we belong to a blessed nation.
During the precious upcoming nights of Ramadan, remember to keep Dr Aafia, her family and all those unjustly imprisoned in your du’ās. May Allah release her, heal her
of her mental and physical wounds, and return her to her family. May He place mercy in our hearts towards her and the wider Ummah and aid us in our efforts to free
her. Aameen..