UNSILENCED FILES · WEEK 1 OF 7
Do you know her name?
The official record exists. So do the unanswered questions. Week 1 begins with the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.
THE AAFIA FILES
01 / 07
Who she is
02 / 07
Her name is
Aafia Siddiqui.
MIT graduate · BS in Biology · 1995
PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience of Education · Brandeis University · 2001
Mother of three children
Pakistani citizen
Source: MIT records · Brandeis University · Deborah Scroggins, Wanted Women (2012)
The vanishing
03 / 07
March 30, 2003
The taxi was surrounded. The children were dragged out.
She was on her way to the airport with her three children for a flight to Islamabad. On the street in Karachi, the vehicle was surrounded. The children were forcibly removed. She was never seen again for five years. No government has ever fully accounted for those years.
Source: Clive Stafford Smith, Aafia's attorney · Ahmad Siddiqui testimony · Deborah Scroggins, Wanted Women (2012)
The evidence problem
04 / 07
The key witnesses against her were waterboarded.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other Guantanamo detainees were the primary sources used to build the case against her. All were subjected to torture before making these statements. KSM named nine people under waterboarding. Eight have since been exonerated. Aafia is the only one still in prison.
Source: US Senate Intelligence Committee Report on CIA Torture 2014 · Clive Stafford Smith, 349-page court application · Committee to Protect Journalists
86
YEARS
Convicted 2010 · Southern District of New York
Not once charged with terrorism.
Source: US District Court SDNY · Case No. 08-cr-826 · Sentencing September 23, 2010
The silence
06 / 07
You probably never heard her name. That was not an accident.
We are not asking you what to think. We are asking why this story never reached you. That question matters.
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
Next Monday
Her life before 2003. Who she was becoming.
