KARACHI: In spite of the rhetoric on the International Women’s Day, Aafia Siddiqui’s case shows the harsh realities of the real world, said speakers during a demo in front of the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Wednesday.
Members of the National Women Alliance, a union of various political and civil society organisations, staged a protest for the realease of Aafia, Siddiqui.
Aafia’s sister Dr Fauzia Siddiqui said, “Pakistani neuroscientist was kidnapped from Karachi along with her three children in March 2003, sold for dollars and trafficked to Afghanistan.”
Addressing the demo, Aafia’s sister Dr Fauzia Siddiqui said, “Why it needs to celebrate a day for women’s rights in a Muslim country. Islam teaches us to respect women.”
She said, “Solution of problems faced by women would not be found in women’s day programs but we have to change our mindset through the teachings of Islam.”
“On the Women’s Day, the message to the world is that Aafia is the name of a person, who has braved every sort of anti-women atrocities: kidnapping, victimisation of human trafficking, torture, humiliation, injuries, and jail in a fabricated case, which itself is the worst example of miscarriage of justice.”
She said Dr Aafia was deprived of the right of defence during her so-called trial. “In the written history there would not be any other worse example of the anti-women atrocities,” she said.
She said, “If such atrocities are meted out to a western woman or to a daughter of a Pakistani prime minister, there will be much hue and cry.”
“The apathy of Pakistani politicians in the case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui shows their hypocrisy, narrow vision and self-serving agendas,” she said.
Fauzia said further she wanted to dedicate the day to her sister for her courage. She said, “Aafia is the daughter of the nation and the mother of the humanity.”
Karachi Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Vice President Sadia Agha said the PTI has included the women’s issues in their manifesto. She said, “Dr Aafia is the daughter of our nation and it is necessary that anti-humanity atrocities being meted out to her must stop now. Our rulers have backtracked of all their promises, including the release of Aafia.” “It is the duty of the Pakistani rulers to respect these legal and constitutional rights of Aafia and play their role in her early repatriation,” she concluded.
