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Al Qaeda’s Mata Hari...

Or the Grey Lady of Bagram? Once the most wanted woman in the world, Dr Aafia Siddiqui to stand trial in New York

Posted On Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 02:39:47 AM

New York: Pakistan-born, MIT-educated, mother of three Dr Aafia Siddiqui was once declared the world’s most wanted woman.

In 2003, she mysteriously vanished for five years, during which time she was variously dubbed the “Mata Hari of al Qaeda” or the “Grey Lady of Bagram”.

Siddiqui is currently on trial for attempted murder. Around 18 months ago, a team of Americans picked up Siddiqui and her 11-year-old son for being suicide bombers.

Siddiqui snatched an officer’s gun and fired twice. Nobody was hit, however was shot in the abdomen. How did this fragile-looking woman clad in a dark robe and white headscarf enter a world of spies and militants?

Aafia the person
Aafia Siddiqui was born in Karachi 37 years ago. Her parents were Pakistani middle-class folk with strong faith in Islam and education.

Aafia won her admission to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, later, Brandeis University, where she graduated in cognitive neuroscience. In 1995, she married a young Karachi doctor, Amjad Khan.

Aafia the destroyer
In May 2002, the FBI questioned her and her husband about some purchases they had made —  $10,000 worth of night-vision goggles, body armour and 45 military-style books.

She later opened a post box in the US in the name of Majid Khan, an alleged al Qaeda operative accused of plotting to blow up petrol stations in Baltimore. In March 2003, the FBI issued a global alert for Siddiqui. A few weeks later, she vanished.

Aafia the sufferer?
According to US, Siddiqui was plotting mayhem for Osama bin Laden. But her family says she spent five years at the Bagram detention centre, near Kabul, where she suffered unspeakable horrors.

Yvonne Ridley, British journalist turned Muslim campaigner, says she is the “Grey Lady of Bagram” — a ghostly female detainee who kept prisoners awake “with her haunting sobs and piercing screams”.


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