The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I am Ismat Siddiqui, a mother, a grandmother, a widow, and your fellow human being. As I write this to you I am in failing health, so you will understand my sense of urgency.

Aafia Siddiqui could have been anyone’s daughter. But she is my daughter.Mr President, my daughter Dr, Aafia Siddiqui, about whom you may have already heard something. While there are literally millions of pages of conjecture, praise, innuendo and a blend of fact and fiction woven into a picture of a person who has been raised to sainthood by supporters and vilified as a demon by detractors. The truth is lost in the midst of this.

The truth is that Aafia is a mother of three and a brilliant Muslim woman whose only passion was to bring education to her people. For this she studied at the finest institutions in the world including MIT and Brandeis in the United States. Somewhere in the blind aftermath of Sept.11, 2001, Aafia became a victim of the war of terror. This is not just a story it is a reality of torture, abuse, humiliation, deception, and barbarism by those that claims to be the most civilised, it is a grave injustice by Those that claim to be the most just, it is an epic of prejudice by America who claims to be free of it. This is not just one woman’s ordeal, it is a slur and blackening stigma on the worlds number one super power and it’s claim on humanity .

I will not go into the horrendous case, its merits or demerits as I am sure the prosecutors will do their best to shield the true facts for you to see. A fact sheet prepared by international justice network is attached. Mr President,
The thought of what my daughter has gone through these past years, being kidnapped, forcibly separated from her children, tortured, shot, beaten, shackled, and strip searched tears my heart apart. Even now the conditions of her detention and treatment defy common decency. After arriving in New York City with oozing bullet wounds, she was denied any medical care for a month. Both in New York and at the Carswell Medical Facility in Fort Worth her captors have continued a pattern of threatening her if she cooperates with her lawyers and punishing her when she does. Being denied access to family it is now over 12 years of agony.

I sent my daughter to your country as a seventeen year old, to get the kind of education she couldn’t get anywhere else in the world. I taught her that the values that matter the most are kindness and justice, to care for people in need, and to help the helpless. I taught my daughter that this is what America stood for. Have you forgotten those values? Her two US born citizen children ask why they were kidnapped and tortured and why the US did this to them? Can you answer that?Aafia is committed to peace, to justice, and to God. She is not a terrorist. With her education and passion for children she would have been a brilliant light in the darkest corners of this world. Her research in early childhood learning could have helped millions of children everywhere. My daughter would have been an asset in a world that needs these values more than ever.

I appeal to you to use your presidential power of pardon and undo one of the gravest injustices of our time. This will be a gesture that will gain you a goodwill in the Muslim world that millions in aid will not. This simple gesture on your part will warm the heart of a dying mother and revive the American way of mercy and compassion. For a moment just think as a father, who can save a daughter from doom. I can assure you regardless of what your intelligence agents may tell you, my daughter is no threat to anyone, letting her go will only make you more powerful and glorious as an act of mercy is twice blessed

Thank you so very much for your time,
Ismat Siddiqui.

Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui
Neurologist, Epilepsy Specialist
www.aafiamovement.com